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Cover-up will not work, SAFMA tells Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

“Initial denial mode has already damaged Pakistan’s credibility”
It’s vital to “rebuild bridges” between civil societies of two countries

ISLAMABAD: Representatives of a Pakistani non-government delegation that recently visited India on a peace mission have urged the Pakistan government to ensure that the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are identified and brought to justice.

“The bottom line is how far Pakistan sincerely investigates the Mumbai incident and shares the information with India. There must not be any cover-up, there must not be any attempt at cunning, or to be too clever-by-half,” said Imtiaz Alam, secretary-general of the South Asia Free Media Association, on Tuesday.

“We want to make this government realise that a cover-up will not work,” Mr. Alam told an invited audience to discuss the combined SAFMA and South Asians for Human Rights mission to India.

Minister of State for Interior Tasnim Ahmad Qureshi said on Tuesday afternoon that the report of the government’s investigations into the material on Mumbai provided by India would be made public “at a suitable time, possibly within a week.”

Asked by reporters if the leads from the Pakistani investigation pointed “outside Pakistan,” he replied that “this is what we have been saying for a long time,” but added that it was premature to comment on the report, and that it would be made public by the Prime Minister or the Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik.

Mr. Alam said the initial “denial mode” by the Pakistani government and media had already damaged the country’s credibility and interests considerably, and caused great damage to India-Pakistan relations.

“Difficult trip”

Four members of the delegation spoke at the SAFMA-SAHR event, and all described it as a “difficult” trip during a critical time, but were emphatic that it was vital to “rebuild bridges” between the civil societies of the two countries.

“I appeal to Rehman Malik [Interior Ministry chief], to the Prime Minister, if these are non-state actors, why should we sacrifice the interests of Pakistan in order to protect them. If there are skeletons in the cupboard, we must throw them out. We must come out fully, transparently and completely. We must proceed to prosecute [the perpetrators] and ensure that Mumbai is not repeated again,” he said.

Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party spoke of the extreme anger in India over the attacks, and how he could sense it as he moved around in New Delhi dressed in the traditional Pakistani salwar-kameez and Peshawari footwear.

“For the first time in India, I felt afraid that I might be attacked,” the senator said. “The people of India are angry and they are waiting for our investigations. If this attack originated here, we should own it and not try to hide it,” Mr. Adeel said.

He also said that those with whom the delegation interacted were surprised to learn that “there is a Mumbai in the North-West Frontier Province every day.”

But, both he and A.H. Nayyar, a well-known nuclear disarmament activist and physicist, said they had no answer to a question they were repeatedly asked in India: does the government in Pakistan have the capability and the will to deal with these terrorists and their supporters?

Dr. Nayyar also said that contrary to the impression in Pakistan, the visit was “not unsuccessful.” He said members of the delegation had successfully argued that war was not the answer as it would strengthen the hands of the terrorists.

“The majority opinion among our interlocutors was that war is not an option. But there were people who said that if an attack of a similar kind is repeated, then India would respond militarily. To them, we said that even saying such a thing was tantamount to inviting those who want to see a war between India and Pakistan to stage another attack,” he said.

Chaudhary Manzoor of the Pakistan People’s Party said the delegation wanted to send the message to India that a regional strategy was required to deal with the “different faces of terrorism” across South Asia.

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