Taping Ajmal's confession in Hindi may cost India

India goofed up in its probe into the terror attacks by recording Mohammed Ajmal Amir’s confession in Hindi, a Pakistan foreign office source said on Wednesday.

This allowed Pakistan to question the credibility of the dossier given by India.

Worse was the use of Hindi in a letter by Ajmal to Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi. The letter was handed over on December 22.

The source said the confession included in the dossier quoted Ajmal as  saying it was read out to him in Hindi.

While the Indian authorities could argue that the policemen who recorded the confession preferred Hindi as they were not conversant with Urdu and there is not much difference between spoken Hindi and Urdu, they will find it hard to explain how an alleged Pakistani citizen wrote a letter in Hindi, which is not taught in Pakistan. Urdu is Pakistan’s national language and would have been used by Ajmal if he had written the letter, the source said.