The poor security for the visitors and the ease with which the terrorists were able to target the team, has further isolated both Pakistan as a global hub of terrorism and a venue for international cricket.

President Asif Zardari was forced to apologise to his Sri Lankan counterpart yesterday for the lack of protection, while the International Cricket Council officials said it was unlikely that international cricket matches could be played in Pakistan again until the security situation has dramatically improved.

The revelation that security warnings for such a sensitive match will fuel further criticism. Sri Lanka had stepped in to play Pakistan after India withdraw following last november’s attack on Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists. The Sri Lankans came under intense pressure to pull out from India amid concerns about the country’s poor security situation.

A leaked report from Punjab’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), passed to Pakistani papers reveals that authorities were warned almost six weeks ago, of a plot and urged the all security agencies in the state and federal governments to take special precautions to protect the visitors.

The report identifies the Indian intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), as the force behind the plot – an accusation regularly traded between India and Pakistan – but specifically identified the drive between their hotel and the stadium as the scene of the attack.

Pakistani newspapers quoted the report, dated January 22nd 2009, warning:”It has reliably been learnt that RAW (Indian intelligence agency) has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Lahore, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium or at hotel during their stay.

“It is evident that RAW intends to show Pakistan a security risk state for sports events, particularly when the European and the Indian teams have already postponed their proposed visits considering it a high security risk to visit Pakistan .Extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangements indicated.” A further letter from Punjab’s then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif’s office to Lahore’s Inspector-General of Police and security ministers, requested extra security protection for the tourists. “The chief minister has seen the enclosed source report and has desired that every effort may be made for the security of the Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Lahore. He has further desired that extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangement may be made to avert any untoward incident,” his officials wrote.

The correspondence and the ‘secret report’ have been leaked in a new political row over who is to blame. Sharif was forced to stand down as chief minister shortly before the attack after a Supreme Court ruling that he had been ineligible to stand for the post. His government was dismissed and President Asif Ali Zadari imposed the state’s governor Salman Taseer as acting chief executive.

Sri Lankan cricketers: Pakistan ‘ignored’ warnings about attack on team bus

While police continued to scour the eastern city of Lahore for the gunmen, all of whom escaped, the government of the eastern province of Punjab appealed for help from the public in most national newspapers.

Officers announced today that they had arrested “some suspects” behind the attack, but the gunmen were still at large.

“The dignity of the country has been hurt,” the Punjab government said, alongside blurred images of the gunmen grabbed from CCTV footage.

“Assist us in identifying the terrorists who fired at the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.”

As the hunt for the gunmen continued, Haji Habibur Rehman, Lahore police chief, said that none of those detained in the city had directly carried out the attack. He did not say how many had been arrested.

“So far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Pakistani officials say yesterday’s attack outside Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium bore all the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for a similar commando-style attack on Mumbai in November.

However, several have hinted at a “foreign hand” in the attack, fuelling speculation among ordinary Pakistanis – despite a complete lack of evidence – that India carried out the attack as revenge for the Mumbai attacks.

One newspaper printed what appeared to be a fake report from the Punjab police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) warning in January that India’s intelligence agency might try to attack the Indian cricket team.

The report, dated January 22, 2009, says that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) “has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Sri Lanka, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium.”

It appears to be signed by Malik Muhammad Iqbal, the additional Inspector General of Police, CID Punjab.

When contacted by The Times, Mr Iqbal declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the report.

“That is something which has been leaked,” he said. “I cannot comment on intelligence matters.”

Other Punjab police officials declined to comment.

Several security experts and political analysts said the report was clearly a fake, designed to deflect attention from LeT and to shift blame onto the federal government that took charge of Punjab last week.

It nonetheless illustrates how Pakistan’s charged political climate contributes to the popular sense of denial about the threat posed by the al Qaeda and Taleban militants sheltering near its border with Afghanistan.

Asif Ali Zardari, the President, vowed today to continue the fight against the militants who are also blamed for the assassination of his wife, the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.

“This is an existential battle,” he said in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. “If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option.”

However, Western diplomats fear that he is being undermined by members of Pakistan’s powerful army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who have links to LeT and other militant groups.

One former ISI chief with clear Islamist sympathies has even speculated publicly that yesterday’s attack could have been carried out by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, backed by Indian intelligence, as a payback for Mumbai.

“It’s all too obvious that it is the handiwork of the Indian intelligence,” said retired general Hamid Gul.

Despite the lack of supporting evidence, such theories easily gain credence among ordinary Pakistanis stunned at the attack on their most cosmopolitan city – and a sport that is a national obsession.

“Pakistanis could not do this,” was a typical response from Shazia Sardar, a 28-year-old immigration officer. “The people who did this were not Muslims.”

However, most serious Pakistani commentators dismissed talk of an Indian conspiracy and urged the government to confront the homegrown militants who have ruined Pakistan’s reputation as a sporting venue.

“The worst thing that can happen to a state is to go into denial. How long will we deny that we have groups that have run amok and whose obvious agenda involves destroying Pakistan as a nation state?” wrote Ejaz Haider in the Daily Times.

“To point to India… without bothering to look at other evidence for which we now have a long trajectory, is not simply ignorance; it is deliberate perfidy.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s cricketers were being welcomed home by tearful relatives and the country’s sports minister, Gamini Lokuge, amid tight security at the international airport in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.

“I never thought I will be able to come home alive,” said Mahela Jayawardene, the team captain, as he was greeted by his relieved wife Christina.

Batsmen Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, who were both hit by bullets, were among the first of the 25-member touring party to leave the airport to be taken to a private hospital in Colombo.

“Both of them may need further treatment and surgery,” said Geethanjana Mendis, a sports medicine specialist who assessed their injuires before they flew home.

He said the entire team needed medical evaluation, but none of the injuries were life threatening.

Six players and a British assistant coach were hurt in yesterday’s attack, which also left six Pakistani policemen and two civilians dead, including one of the team convoy’s drivers.

In Washington last night, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, offered his sympathy to the victims of the attack but said Pakistan must be seen to be dealing with the ‘terrorist problem in its midst.’

“My first thoughts are with those who died and those who have been casualties as a result of this terrorist attack,” he said.

“Obviously, when people are competing in sport and suddenly there’s a terrorist attack, it is all the more tragic.

“What we have to do is to make sure that action against terrorism in Pakistan is effective. We know that the vast majority of al Qaida fighters are in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.

“We know that there are groups in Pakistan that are terrorist groups that need to be brought under control, arrested and brought to trial.

“I have been pressing for some time the Pakistan government to make sure that arrests happen, terrorists are brought under control and Pakistan is seen to be fulfilling its role in the world community in dealing with the terrorist problem in its midst.”

Pakistan offers $125,000 bounty for terrorists who attacked cricketers

Pakistan’s Interior Ministry Adviser Rehman Malik told a press conference that “some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan,” adding that eight people had been arrested – including a few named by India as masterminds.

But he also unveiled a slew of foreign links pointing to a network of “non-state actors” providing logistical support from around the globe. These include:

* Internet phone accounts arranged in Barcelona
* a digital teleconferencing system in Houston
* the use of Indian mobile phone connections
* a domain name registered in Russia
* a satellite phone registered in a Middle Eastern country
* further links to Austria and Italy.

Criticism, pressure from India
After 164 people were killed in Mumbai over three days last November, India was quick to point the finger at its long-standing rival for not doing enough to stop terrorists from using their territory as a base. (Read the Monitor’s article about that here.)

It was not until early January that Pakistan admitted that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the attacks, was a Pakistani, while government officials have over the past few days been pushing a Bangladesh link. As little as eight days ago, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UK denied the attacks had been planned in Pakistan. The government, it appears, is keen to dispel the notion that there was any official link between the attackers and any government agencies, instead portraying itself, along with other countries, as a hapless victim.

Admission coincides with US envoy’s visit
The admission also coincides with a visit to the region by the newly-named US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke – the Monitor wrote about his ‘listening tour‘ on Wednesday. (It may be worth noting that the Pakistani government’s apparent about-face on releasing disgraced nuclear scientist Dr. AQ Khan’s was attributed by the Pakistani media to Holbrooke’s visit.]

India, meanwhile had termed the developments as “positive” but added Pakistan must now dismantle the “infrastructure of terrorism” on its soil.

Pakistan admits links to Mumbai attacks, arrests chief suspects | csmonitor.com

Tension has run high between the nuclear-armed rivals since the November attacks which killed 179 people. India has blamed them on the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group denies involvement.

“Countries found wanting in their commitment to zero tolerance of terrorism will be made to pay a heavy price by the international community,” Pranab Mukherjee told a conference in India’s capital.

“Our diplomatic efforts in dealing with terrorist states will continue unabated.”

Indian officials are frustrated at what they see as Pakistan’s slow response in arresting the attack’s planners. They want the incoming U.S. administration of Barack Obama to press Islamabad to act on a dossier of evidence presented this month by New Delhi.

While Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the attacks must have had the support of official agencies within Pakistan, the United States and its allies have stepped back from blaming the Pakistan government.

Despite the tension, the chances of military confrontation between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since 1947, is low thanks in part to the diplomacy of the United States and other powers, analysts say.

“GOOD NEWS IN TWO WEEKS”

The sense that India may not have the full support of the West was highlighted at the weekend.

Indian media criticised Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said on a visit to New Delhi that India needed to resolve the issue of disputed Kashmir as part of a wider strategy to improve relations with Pakistan after the attacks.

New Delhi sees the issue of Kashmir, ruled in part but claimed as a whole by both India and Pakistan, as irrelevant to the Mumbai raid.

Monday, the LeT, which has claimed responsibility for scores of suicide attacks on security forces in its fight against Indian rule, said for the first time that violence was not the only way to deal with Kashmir.

“We don’t see the armed struggle as the only way to achieve our goal, if the world listens to our cries and plays its role in resolving the Kashmir issue,” Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba, said in a statement.

Pakistan condemned the Mumbai attacks from the outset and denied involvement of any of its agencies. It has offered to cooperate with India by sending over a security official and setting up a joint team to investigate.

India has not accepted the offers.

In an Indian TV interview, Miliband said Islamabad must move away from the stance towards LeT he says it held under former president Pervez Musharraf.

“It’s very important that the so-called carousel-and-engage approach is one that is changed, because it obviously doesn’t work,” he told CNN-IBN news channel Sunday.

“It was an approach which recognized that LeT did pose a threat but also recognized that they had to engage with the LeT.”

In Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the government’s top Interior Ministry official, Rehman Malik, briefed foreign diplomats on Pakistani efforts since the attack.

Malik set a 10-day deadline at the weekend for an investigating team to complete a report and Monday promised “good news in two weeks,” said a Western diplomat who attended the meeting.

The Pakistani officials had also indicated a desire for direct interaction with India in the investigation, he said.

“Both were stressing that the original Pakistani offer, both of investigation through a joint commission and, or, a high-level visit were still very much on the table,” said the diplomat.

Pakistan has detained scores of members of the LeT and an affiliated Islamic charity, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but India is demanding it dismantle what it calls the “infrastructure of terrorism.”

Pakistan has been angered by the Indian suggestion that Pakistani state agencies were involved and what it sees as repeated Indian hints of military action.

India keeps up pressure on Pakistan over Mumbai | World | Reuters

Pakistan wants India to extradite the alleged perpetrators of the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings, a terrorist attack on the twice-weekly train service connecting Delhi, India, and Lahore, Pakistan, that killed 68 people. A Pakistani official said Sunday there would be an extradition quid-pro-quo, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

“If India (keeps) insisting on … handing over the suspects of the Mumbai attacks, we will also ask it to hand over the accused of the Samjhauta Express blast,” Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said.

Malik repeated Pakistan’s commitment to wait and see if there is any substantial evidence about the Mumbai bombings provided to it by India. He also said Pakistan would arrest and try anyone that was found responsible for the Mumbai attacks, Dawn said.

Pakistan may seek train bomb extraditions – UPI.com

Tension between nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India has been simmering since the late November attack in which gunmen killed 179 people in Mumbai, India’s financial capital.

India has become increasingly frustrated with what it sees as Pakistan’s lack of action. Pakistan has been angered by an Indian suggestion Pakistani state agencies were involved and what it sees as repeated Indian hints of military action.

Pakistan condemned the attack, denied involvement of any of its agencies and offered to cooperate with India in the investigation.

Pakistan’s top Interior Ministry official, Rehman Malik, repeated that offer on Thursday as he outlined action the government had taken against the LeT and an Islamic charity the United Nations says is an LeT front.

“We have arrested a total (of) 124,” Malik told a news conference, adding those arrested were “mid-level, lower-mid-level and their top leadership”.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was banned in Pakistan in 2002 but the United Nations says it has been using its charity wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), as a front for its militant activities.

JuD was added to a U.N. list of terrorist organisations days after the Mumbai attacks. Hafiz Saeed, founder of the LeT and head of JuD, was put under house arrest soon after that.

“Activities ceased”

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has been in India and is due to visit Pakistan, said Pakistan had to prosecute those responsible for the attacks.

“We should hold the Pakistan government to the promise that these people will be put through the judicial system and, if found guilty, will be prosecuted. That’s only a first step,” Miliband said in a speech at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, one of the places the gunmen attacked in November.

“LeT also needs to be tackled at its root. It’s evident there has been a failure in policy and policy needs to change to tackle LeT at its root,” he said.

Malik said the government had closed 20 offices, 87 schools and several religious seminaries, or madrasas, run by JuD. Authorities also banned its publications and blocked six group websites, he said.

“All activities of that particular organisation stand ceased,” Malik said.

The Indian government and military have said all options are open in their response to the Mumbai attack, which Pakistan has interpreted as a veiled threat of a military response.

Political analysts say war is unlikely, however.

Malik said he wanted India to allow Pakistani investigators to help in the investigation: “We need interaction and I request my counterpart please make the arrangements … Interaction will bring quick results.”

In response, India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, urged direct communication between the two countries.

“Instead of being informed through the media, I would be happy to receive a direct response from Pakistan through existing diplomatic channels, and to see Pakistan implementing her words,” Mukherjee said in a statement late on Thursday.

India has provided Pakistan with data from satellite telephones used by the attackers and what it describes as the confession of a surviving gunman.

Pakistan says 124 held in wake of Mumbai attack | WORLD

Pakistan said it wanted to have an approach of “cooperative engagement” with India as war was no solution to the problem of terrorism which was a global phenomenon. “Quite a lot of material” was provided by India and the Pakistani investigators would work to convert this into “evidence that could stand up to judicial scrutiny,” Interior Ministry chief Rahman Malik told a press conference here.

No case regarding the Mumbai attacks had been registered so far in Pakistan. “If prima facie evidence is available on record, we will then convert it into a criminal case,” Mr. Malik said, adding the time needed for any prosecution would depend on the judiciary.

He said the three-member counter-terror team, probing the Mumbai attack and examining the dossier, had been directed to submit its preliminary findings within 10 days. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Interior Ministry was examining India’s dossier on the Mumbai attacks that was handed over to Pakistan on January 5.

“We have said that after examining the dossier, completing our investigation and examining information from other sources, we will share our findings with India first,” Mr. Qureshi said. Pakistan will pursue an approach of “cooperative engagement” to deal with any further questions that may arise with regard to the Mumbai incident, he said.

Mr. Qureshi said if “any individual or entity linked to Pakistan” wasfound involved in the Mumbai attacks, the government will take action against them according to the country’s law.

Replying to a question in his hometown of Multan, he said the Mumbai incident was not a matter confined to India and Pakistan as nationals of several countries, including the U.S. and Britain, were killed in the attacks.

“We have been successful in conveying our stand that war is not the solution and that terrorism is a global and regional phenomenon. We need a regional approach,” he said. “We don’t want to create war hysteria. The political and military leadership has made measured comments and we will stick to this. We will remain vigilant and it is our endeavour to de-escalate and defuse the situation.”
“No consistency”

He, however, alleged that there was “no consistency” in India’s stance in dealing with the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

“There is no consistency in India’s stance,” Mr. Qureshi said, referring to what he described as flip-flops by New Delhi on matters like the involvement of the Pakistani State and its institutions in the Mumbai attacks and the prosecution of suspects. – PTI

The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan promises fair probe

Despite the announcement, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik dodged a question on whether he was conceding the plot _ which killed 164 people in India’s commercial capital and raised tension between the nuclear-armed rivals _ was hatched on Pakistani soil.

India says a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, masterminded the November attack. In the days afterward, the U.N. Security Council declared that Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity in Pakistan, was merely a front for the outlawed militant organization.

In a news conference, Malik said 124 leaders of several groups had been arrested, and that authorities had taken steps against 20 offices, 87 schools, two libraries, seven religious schools, and six Web sites linked to the charity. He also said authorities had shut more than a dozen relief camps operated by the charity, some of which have been alleged to be militant training grounds.

It was unclear exactly how many people remained in Pakistani custody, however, and Malik at one point indicated many may now simply be under surveillance. Some are also under house arrest.

Among those under house arrest is Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Also in custody are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, two men India alleges planned the Mumbai attacks.

Malik repeated Islamabad’s call for a joint investigation into the attacks and urged India to hand over more information to assist Pakistan’s own probe.

“We are fully committed to help India in this investigation,” he said. “We have to prove to the world that India and Pakistan stand together against the terrorists because they are the common enemies.”

On Jan. 5, India handed Pakistan a dossier of evidence including information on interrogations, weapons and data gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers.

India said the material proved Pakistan-based militants plotted and executed the attacks and has repeatedly insinuated that Pakistani intelligence agents were involved.

Pakistan denies that. However, it is under strong pressure from countries including the United States and Britain, whose citizens were among the dead in Mumbai, to clamp down Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Pakistan has used the group in the past as a proxy force against India in their struggle over the divided Kashmir region. Washington says the group has developed ties to al-Qaida.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in Mumbai on Thursday that Pakistan, a front-line ally of the West also against the al-Qaida and the Taliban, must show “zero tolerance” for all terror networks on its soil.

Miliband plans to visit Pakistan in the coming days.

Malik said Pakistani detectives would “inquire into” the information provided by India “to try to transform it to evidence, evidence which can stand the test of any court in the world and of course our own court of law.”

As other officials have from the start, he appeared to rule out handing over suspects to India, saying Pakistani laws allowed for the prosecution of citizens who committed crimes elsewhere.

India indicated for the first time that it could accept that stance.

“It would be ideal if they (Pakistan’s government) can hand over the fugitives,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Indian news channel Aaj Tak on Wednesday. “If that is not possible, there should at least be a fair trial of these fugitives in Pakistan.”

The United States expressed some satisfaction at how the South Asian neighbors, who have fought three wars in the past and redeployed some of their troops in recent weeks, were managing the fallout from the Mumbai bloodshed and urged more cooperation.

“We would like to see more the exchange of information about the Mumbai attacks so that you can get to the bottom of exactly who was responsible, see the entire plot, and hold all responsible for their actions, and make sure that in doing so you prevent any further plots from getting to the point of execution,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday.

Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota

“The aspect of some (Pakistani) troops coming towards the east… we are aware of it. That has happened. They have come to the eastern border of Pakistan with India,” General Deepak Kapoor told a news conference.

“However having known this fact, let me assure you that the Indian army has factored this in its planning,” he added. “That is not something which is a cause of concern for us.”

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals dramatically escalated after India accused “official agencies” in Pakistan of involvement in the November 26 Mumbai attacks in which 174 people, including nine gunmen, were killed.

Pakistan has strongly denied that accusation.

The chief of India’s 1.3-million strong army conceded the tensions between the two countries, who have three wars since their 1947 independence, were high.

“There has been been larger amount of tensions since 26/11 because we do feel that the perpetrators came from Pakistani soil,” Kapoor said.

“In view of that we in India are keeping all our options open and that must be clearly understood,” the general said.

“It is not to raise any kind of hysteria for war… but I am referring to the keeping of all our options open — whether diplomatic, economic or, as the last resort, a fighting option,” he said.

AFP: Indian army chief confirms Pakistan troop movements

The military said it had killed at least 24 rebels after a series of confrontations on Saturday in the small northeastern wedge of jungle which is all that is left of the Tigers’ self-proclaimed state.

In the course of fighting, troops captured two rebel camps and a 2.5 km (1 mile) long airstrip with two hangars the military said it suspected was used by the Tigers’ rudimentary air wing.

The air force said war planes destroyed a rebel boat on Sunday and wounded fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fleeing the area, which is on the east coast north of the remaining Tiger bastion of Mullaittivu.

The Tigers could not be reached for comment. But the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com quoted Tiger officials saying they had killed 18 soldiers and wounded 40 at Iranamadu, southwest of the former rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi.

Soldiers seized that town, which the rebels had dubbed their capital, on Jan. 2 and a week later ran the LTTE out of Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the northern Jaffna Peninsula which had been in rebel hands since 2000.

Both major victories have cleared the way for soldiers to converge on the port of Mullaittivu with the aim of ending the 25-year ground war.

TamilNet also reported an artillery barrage killed four civilians in Puthukudiyiruppu, near Mullaittivu.

The military denied both TamilNet stories and said it had a policy of not causing any civilian casualties.

It is difficult to get a clear picture since both sides block most independent access to the battlefield and have in the past distorted casualty figures to their advantage.

Rights groups have accused the LTTE of holding Tamil civilians hostage in the war zone.

The LTTE denies this but in the past has used the presence of civilians to stop or slow army offensives, and analysts expect the large civilian presence to delay the push on Mullaittivu.

In a sign of what analysts believe will come after the conventional war is over, one member of a government-allied breakaway Tiger group was killed and two rebels were shot in a confrontation in the eastern town of Trincomalee.

The LTTE say they are fighting to address mistreatment of minority Tamils since the Sinhalese ethnic majority took over at independence from Britain in 1948. But many Sinhalese say Tamils enjoyed unfair advantages in colonial times and want them back. The Tigers are on U.S., European Union and Indian terrorism lists after carrying out hundreds of assassinations and suicide bombings, including against Tamils who challenged them.

Indian authorities and international experts have expressed the suspicion that the good intentions of Pakistan’s civilian leaders are not necessarily shared by its military and intelligence establishments, which were forged in a decades-long rivalry with India and have sponsored armed Islamist groups in Indian Kashmir and in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet conflict there.

But Qureshi and Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, said Wednesday that the country’s security forces are subservient to civilian authority and committed to supporting democratic rule. “It is completely clear to the army chief and I that this government must succeed,” Pasha said of Zardari’s administration. “I report regularly to the president and take orders from him.”

Pasha also ruled out the possibility of going to war with India, telling the online edition of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel that Pakistan is “distancing itself” from such conflict and that “we know full well that terror is our enemy, not India.” He acknowledged, however, that although he had been willing to travel to India after the Mumbai attacks, some senior officials were “simply not ready” to make such a gesture to Pakistan’s longtime adversary.

Qureshi, asked here whether his government was in control of the military and intelligence sectors, asserted vehemently that it was.

“Pakistan’s political and military leadership is one,” he said. “When the military leadership speaks, you can take it for granted they are speaking for the civilian leaders, and when the political leadership speaks, the military is behind it.”

Sri Lanka army fights to finish off Tamil Tigers | Reuters