Media channels are ‘shocked’ that Ajmal Kasab’s letter is not ample proof for Pakistan. What do we expect? A ready acceptance? How naive can we get? It could be easily said that such a ‘confession’ was coerced out of Ajmal. We might as well give them photocopies of all the articles from Indian newspapers as a dossier. Despite all the noise about diplomatic pressure and so on, India has very little real options to prod Pakistan to take some action. The confession being passed off as evidence will not pass muster with both Pakistan and the international community.
Strangely, Interpol says that they were not given any information of the attacks, despite their team meeting our officials. What did they discuss then? Ronald Noble, Interpol’s Secretary General says “The information Interpol has about what happened in Mumbai is the same information that you have – it’s information that was read in journals, that was read on the internet or that was seen on TV.” WTF? What about stuff like DNA testing? or any other hard evidence? What was the purpose of having discussions with them if they were not provided hard facts? This surely be fodder for the Pakistani media who are already rubbishing the ‘confession’ (their quotes).
Talking of media, I happened to watch another ‘exclusive’ from Times NOW (groan). There were dramatic shots of what was purportedly the house in which Masood Azhar lives in Bahawalpur. The report said that the channel visited the city and showed some hazy pictures of a bearded gent being taken in a van, walking down the street etc. All with a big red circle around his face. It could have been anybody. There was nothing in the report that clearly identified Masood Azhar. Yet, there was typcial hysteria about the report. If this is investigative journalism, then my name is Senguttuvan.
Forget the doublespeak of Pakistani officials & ministers for a minute. What real options does India have? War is not an option. Surgical strikes – but where? In PoK? Karachi? Do we know? Even if we do, that will surely escalate into war. Compared to this the entire history of the 9/11 attackers – what they did in the US, for how long, their backgrounds – were all available. And no one disputed that because they were hard facts. According to Wikipedia, ‘the suspects were identified within 72 hours because few made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records and they were among the few non-U.S. citizens and nearly the only passengers with Arabic names on their flights, enabling the FBI to identify them and in many cases such details as dates of birth, known, and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identification of the suspected pilots within hours’. Sure, we have a covert operation here. But to expect Pakistan to take a pleading letter from Kasab seriously is a bit too much.
