Somini Sengupta of The New York Times has a very interesting story based on the details contained in the dossier that India has provided to Pakistan about the Mumbai attacks. Going by the NYT report the dossier tries hard to establish irrefutable links between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.
To some extent the NYT story addresses my misgivings about the quality of the dossier. However, it appears to have weak spots, which are perfectly understandable given the nature of the attacks, which a country in pathological denial mode is bound to exploit. There are references, for instances, to a bottle of Mountain Dew soda manufactured in Pakistan which was among the materials found on a trawler used by the terrorists. “It contains photographs of materials found on the fishing trawler, from a bottle of Mountain Dew soda packaged in Karachi to pistols that bore the markings of a gun manufacturer in Peshawar to a Pakistani-made matchbox, detergent powder, and shaving cream, called “Touchme,” the story says.
Pakistan is entirely capable of countering this saying these items could have been planted by Indian investigators. If they can disown a full grown individual like Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, dismissing a bottle of Mountain Dew or a matchbox would be ridiculously easy.
Read the story here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/asia/07india.html?hp