Pakistan must come clean on 26/11: Krishna

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Pakistan has not been playing fair with India, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said on Friday and agreed that Islamabad had blocked the trial of terror suspect Tahawwur 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,” Krishna told reporters here when asked if India believed that the trial in the US had hit a roadblock because of Pakistan. Krishna said Pakistan must bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack in that country to justice in the backdrop of revelations by Rana’s close friend David Coleman Headley that he was funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to scout terror targets in India.

“The fact remains that throughout the last few months when the trial was going and in reports of evidence there were substantial linkages between these two facing trial in the Mumbai attack. This is something which Pakistan must very seriously consider,” he said. Krishna also asked Pakistan to investigate the case transparently in that country which “is in its interests and in the interest of the region and the interest of the bilateral relations between Pakistan and India”.

“The conspiracy behind the Mumbai attack has to be investigated in a very transparent manner so that we would also be quite satisfied.” The minister said the acquittal of Rana for his alleged role in the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people was not satisfying for India. “The judicial process has taken its view, a particular view, which we may not be very satisfied with,” he said about the ruling that has “disappointed” India. Krishna said India could not do much about getting Rana convicted in the US but would pursue his case in India. “You cannot dictate to the judicial process. Well that is the law of the land, you are dealing with a foreign country and naturally you have to pursue further.”