The lone surviving Mumbai
attacker Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab is not a stateless phantom after all. Pakistan
has finally owned up that he is indeed a Pakistani national. Viewed from the
prism of assertive denials since the attacks, this ought to be regarded as a hugely
significant development fraught with long-term consequences.
"We have received information from the competent authority that he's a Pakistani," foreign office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq told the New Delhi-based wire service IANS. Then forswearing any possible obligation towards its own citizens Sadiq said Pakistan will not provide any legal aid to him. "He has done a heinous crime and cannot be provided any sort of help," he said. That is a bit of a dampener but in the larger scheme of things it is important that Pakistan has at least owned him up.
There is a distinct possibility that India will now pursue the origin of the nine other attackers who were killed during the siege. There have been enough hints dropped that all ten were from Pakistan but there is no clear word on that yet. Going by the chain of events and the chronology pieced together by Indian investigators it makes sense that Qasab was part of a group of people who arrived by sea to Mumbai. It is important that the origin of the other nine is quickly established if only to strengthen the argument that it was a carefully plotted operation begun and directed by elements in Pakistan.
I can understand Pakistan’s eagerness to put as much distance between the attacker and Islamabad but to the extent that they were Pakistani national the country has clear obligations under the international law. To say that since Qasab committed heinous crime and hence is not worthy of any official involvement is disingenuous.
With this admission one safely argue that Pakistan’s quick dismissal of the dossier provided by India no longer holds ground. If Qasab is now accepted to be a Pakistani national, then it follows that a lot of what is contained in the dossier is also credible.