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ShareISLAMABAD: A three-member team from Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probing the Mumbai terror attacks has reportedly shifted the blame for the carnage on to the Bangladesh chapter of the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI-B).
The FIA team, which was investigating the case on the basis of a dossier handed over to Pakistan by India, has said Huji-B was responsible for planning the attack and training the terrorists involved.
According to a Pakistani media report, the FIA's report has been submitted to the government in Islamabad.
Diplomatic circles in Islamabad said the international community would treat the report as an eyewash and the report would strengthen India's contention that Islamabad is unwilling to stop using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy.
Dawn, Pakistan's leading English daily, claimed in a front-page report that the FIA's report, which is to be handed over to India, is likely to conclude that the 26/11 attacks were the handiwork of an international network of Muslim fundamentalists in South Asia and West Asia.
Though the FIA report is being kept secret by Pakistan's interior ministry, the newspaper said "on good authority" that the FIA would emphasise that 26/11 was not strictly a Pakistan-India issue.
Pakistan's high commissioner to the Britain Wajid Shamsul Hassan had earlier claimed that investigations had revealed that 26/11 was not planned in Pakistan or in the UK.
FIA links 26/11 to Dubai as well
A three-member team from Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probing the Mumbai terror attacks has reportedly said that the carnage was plotted by the Bangladesh chapter of the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI-B).
A Dawn report said the FIA investigators had concluded that at least one of the Mumbai attackers was of Bangladeshi origin. It has already been established that Mohammed Ajmal Amir, the lone terrorist to be captured alive in Mumbai, was of Pakistani origin; but the identity of the other nine is yet to be determined, though India has been saying they were Pakistanis.
The media report said that though the Bangladesh connection emerged prominently in the FIA probe, there were clear indications that some of the planning was done in Dubai with local Indian support. According to the paper, the investigators believe it would have been almost impossible to plan and execute such an attack without local support. The two sets of questions given to India by Pakistan recently touched upon this aspect. India has responded to only one set so far.
The FIA has reportedly also suggested that the attack may be remotely linked to al-Qaeda's international terror network. Huji-B was established in 1992 with material assistance and inspiration from Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front. It represents the Deobandi school of thought and its recruits are indoctrinated in radical Islam. By describing itself as the second line of defence for every Muslim, the Harkat aims to establish Islamic rule by waging war.
Huji-B aims to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh by waging war and killing progressive intellectuals. It draws inspiration from Laden and the Taliban. At one point, it had issued a slogan, 'Amra Sobai Hobo Taliban, Bangla Hobe Afghanistan' (We will all become Taliban and turn Bangladesh into Afghanistan).
Like the Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Huji supports the secession of Jammu & Kashmir from India and its eventual accession to Pakistan. It also propagates the idea of Islamic rule over India.
