By By Tariq Butt
The first officially-released statement was at its usual best for being drab, hardly conveying anything concrete except the customary expression of sympathy with India for having been hit by the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
After Indian TV channels started crying at the top of their voice that Dr Manmohan Singh had told Gilani that terrorists had come from Karachi and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief should be dispatched to New Delhi to discuss the Mumbai incident, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat changed its mind and issued another statement confirming what the India media said.
In fact, the first statement was revised with the addition: “During the conversation Dr Singh told the prime minister that the preliminary reports point towards Karachi and stressed the need for increased intelligence-sharing and cooperation in order to evolve a joint strategy against terrorism and extremism.
“Dr Singh requested the prime minster to send DG ISI to India for exchange of information in this regard. The prime minister accepted the request and said that after working out modalities by both the governments, the ISI chief will visit India at the earliest.”
Thus, the Indian media that was comprehensively briefed by authorities on the Gilani-Singh talks forced Gilani to come out with certain important details of the conversation.
In the second statement, Gilani accepted his Indian counterpart’s request to send the ISI chief and committed to dispatch him to New Delhi.
But this stand was again changed late on Friday night when the last and perhaps conclusive statement -- attributed to the prime minister’s spokesman -- was issued. It said an ISI representative would visit India instead of the ISI chief to help in investigating the terrorist attack.
But several hours before the issuance of this release, Pakistani military authorities visibly distanced themselves from Gilani’s announcement to send the ISI chief to India because not only they but several politicians and public opinion leaders also resented the premier’s decision. Opponents of the move argued that the intelligence chief should not be dispatched simply in compliance with summoning by India. They do not have any dispute with normal visits of the intelligence chiefs.
Former federal minister Sheikh Rashid was quoted as saying that it was better for the ISI chief to resign rather than go to India this way.
On Friday night, before the issuance of the third statement, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Maj Gen Athar Abbas told a private TV channels that the Army would take a decision on the issue after the receipt of a detailed order from the government in this connection.
Some sources questioned the willingness of the prime minister to send the ISI boss to India when New Delhi had already indicted Pakistan in the Mumbai incidents whenever a terrorist attack takes place in that country. This falsehood has been exposed several times in subsequent investigations.
They say that apart from other consequences of the Mumbai attack, India is a beneficiary of it, especially for the purpose of putting pressure on Pakistan and joining the campaign of the countries out to pressurise Pakistan on the question of terrorism.