The Chicago court verdict which found Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana “not guilty” on charges related to his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks may be a disappointment to India, but it should certainly not be surprising.
However ironic it may be, it should again not be surprising that Rana was convicted by the jury for his role in “providing material support to the thwarted plot” of targeting a Danish newspaper which printed controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
It is perhaps a great wonder that the jury concluded that Rana was guilty of assisting the terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), which the US labelled a terrorist organisation in 2001.
If some Americans, even 10 years after 9/11, can still mistake a Sikh for the late Osama bin Laden, then one supposes that the jury can well overlook or completely miss out on the fact that Rana aided and abetted 26/11, which claimed 166 lives, including those of six US citizens.
While Rana faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the two counts combined and will remain in US custody without a bond, lawyers will appeal against that verdict. And if they succeed, it will be make a mockery of US prosecutors, who alleged that Rana was aware of the 26/11 plan and was in touch with terrorist groups and their leaders in Pakistan.
A US Justice Department official was quoted in the media as saying: “After the sentencing, Rana may appeal his conviction on the two counts, but the government cannot appeal the jury’s finding of ‘not guilty’ on the Mumbai count. It is common knowledge that the law prevents the government from appealing a ‘not guilty’ verdict. A defendant may appeal a guilty verdict,” the official explained, which is quite contrary to the Indian legal system, where both the government and the defendant can appeal against court rulings. Then there is the ruse by Rana’s attorney pleading not guilty because Chicago-based Pakistani-American and LeT operative David Coleman Headley had fooled him. This was earlier supported by Rana’s wife, who went public with this story. However, in her closing argument on Rana, assistant US attorney Victoria Peters said: “He is no fool. He knows exactly who David Headley is and what David Headley is about, and he fully approves.”
No matter how much US-Pakistan relations may have deteriorated after Bin Laden’s killing, the possibility of the Pakistan Army/ISI still being able to twist the US’ tail to acquit Rana on involvement in 26/11 cannot be ruled out. After all, even on exposure of Laden being in Pakistan for many years, Washington gave Pakistan’s top leadership a clean chit.
Barring external affairs minister S.M. Krishna’s reported comment that “the acquittal of Rana for his alleged role in the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people was not satisfying for India”, the government has not issued any statement on Rana’s acquittal and has limited its first reactions to pressing Pakistan to go after the real masterminds, i.e., serving officers of the ISI. Government sources quoted in the media said, “The Chicago trial and David Headley’s testimony has laid threadbare the ISI’s links with the LeT and the ISI’s role in the Mumbai attacks. We expect Pakistan to fully unravel the conspiracy, investigate, arrest and put on trial the real masterminds of 26/11. Those actions will help address the trust deficit. We also hope Pakistan will demonstrate progress in the now stalled Mumbai trial in Rawalpindi.”
Special secretary of internal security U.K. Bansal, however, said that he does not see the verdict as a setback and that Indian agencies will study the judgment. “We don’t rely overly on prosecution in other countries. We will put evidence in our country,” he said. Mr Krishna is also reported to have that Pakistan has not been playing fair with India and agreed that Islamabad had blocked the trial of Rana, who was cleared by a US jury of charges that he helped with the 2008 Mumbai attack. “Yes, of course it did. Pakistan has not been playing fair with us. And we would expect in the larger interest of our bilateral relationship Pakistan must come clean on this issue.”
On CIA chief Leon Panetta’s visit to Pakistan, while some media reports stated that it was to confront that country’s powerful military leadership with evidence of suspected collusion with pro-Afghan Taliban militants in the tribal areas etc., some others cite American officials saying that it was to rebuild a relationship vital to the US’ fight against the Al Qaeda and its efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan, but progress has been slow amid suspicions by some in Washington that elements within the security establishment here were sheltering Bin Laden.
Panetta, who dined with Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the head of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, after arriving on June 10, shared with them a 10-minute edited video showing terrorists evacuating two bomb factories in Miranshah, North Waziristan, and another factory in South Waziristan. The terrorists in North Waziristan are believed to belong to groups led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Sirajuddin Haqqani. Both militant leaders have attacked US and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan and enjoy non-aggression pacts with the Pakistan Army. According to the sources, Panetta alleged that the terrorists were tipped off within 24 hours of the US sharing information on the facilities with the Pakistanis. When Pakistani troops later arrived at the scene of the two bomb-making facilities used for the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, the terrorists had already left. The CIA reportedly believes elements within the Pakistani security apparatus had informed these terrorists that they would be targeted. Panetta’s relationship with both men will be key in view of his new expected role of succeeding Robert Gates as US secretary of defence.
In remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing after the raid that killed bin Laden, Panetta is reported to have said Pakistan must do more to go after militants within its borders and that Americans asked Islamabad to “take a number of concrete steps to demonstrate cooperation and counter-terrorism”.
One of those steps is the formation of a joint intelligence team to track down militant targets inside Pakistan, drawn partly from the so-called treasure trove of Bin Laden records taken from his personal office during the raid. Pakistani officials say the Americans have shared some intelligence from the trove, and the Americans say the Pakistanis are working on providing visas for a small number of US intelligence officers to come to Pakistan to join the team, but both sides complain the effort is moving very slowly. US and Nato/coalition countries’ security officials must read the late Syed Saleem Shahzad’s recently released book, Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban — Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11, packed with exposures damning enough on terrorist linkages of the Pakistan Army, Navy and the ISI for him to be killed. The US must delve deeper into whatever has been. The US must take note of the extent of ISI-LeT-Al Qaeda and the Pakistan Navy-Al Qaeda connections and what all targets they are aiming at. If the 2002 attacks on USS Cole and French supertanker Limburg on high seas are indicators of Al Qaeda’s maritime capability, the recent attack on PNS Mehran is an indicator of Pakistan Navy personnel’s recruitment into the Al Qaeda. The LeT’s 26/11 attack on Mumbai also could not have been possible without training imparted by the Pakistan Navy.
Many events and comments mentioned in this article highlighted and elaborated upon the past few years through news reports and features in this daily yet again underscore the urgent need for India to take some important steps to review some of its existing policies, formulate some more and to upgrade its capabilities to effectively deal with all the existing threats and those which are going to develop in the near future.
New Delhi should be very clear that Pakistan, whose Army, Navy and military intelligence service has been amply exposed in 26/11, is not going to take, if not any, many steps to assuage India’s hurt. The US is not going to take any step further than those few taken so far. Pakistan is going to continue to try its best to prevent US from taking any action which will embarrass or expose its military any more. Apart from many actions recommended from time to time, foreign terrorists who have indulged in attacks, most of which are definitely acts of war, and are caught alive, must be tried within shortest possible time-frames and given appropriate and exemplary punishments. It is imperative for a country like India, given its size, economic stakes and threats, to develop an effective and quick reactive covert external strike capability, more than ever before.