Pakistan fires Advisor who says there was link to Mumbai attack

A former Pakistani ambassador to the US was fired for saying Pakistan had a state link to the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan on Tuesday forcefully denied a suggestion by India's prime minister that official Pakistani agencies were involved in November's attacks in the city of Mumbai and said that leveling such accusations posed "grave risks" to the region.

With this latest exchange of sharp words, tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors appeared to be increasing anew. In the weeks since the three-day rampage by gunmen in India's commercial capital, the two sides have made alternately conciliatory and bellicose comments. - lat

The office of Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani confirmed Wednesday that National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani had been fired, but gave no reason for his dismissal.

Earlier in the day, Durrani said the sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks -- in which more than 160 people were killed -- had ties to Pakistan.

"I think it probably would be true now that for example [Mohammed Ajmal Kasab] had Pakistani connections," said Durrani. "So one cannot deny there was zero link with Pakistan. How much, who all was involved, that we have to investigate." ... Durrani is a former ambassador to the United States and a former Pakistani soldier. - cnn

... India's swift finger-pointing in the wake of the onslaught angered and offended many Pakistanis. Many people here do not accept the Indian contention, backed up by U.S. intelligence, that the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out the shootings. - lat

Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the leading buyers of weapons in 2006 while the United States was the topmost supplier of arms to the developing world, a Congressional study has revealed. October 01, 2007 - rediff

Public in India and Pakistan wants peace. Yes, it does after having lived through a turbulent past. But the peace process is always thwarted because the leaders in the two countries, alongwith the leaders in the Western world, seem to have developed a vested interest in fanning insecurities among the large populace, and thus encouraging arms’ race in the Indian subcontinent. Never mind that in the past few years there has been a sea change in threat perspective.

Today Indian government entered into the biggest defence deal with the USA, while the French President has reached India promoting better ‘defence ties’. More here…

Every leader from the powerful countries that comes visiting India and Pakistan (or for that matter any developing country, including the Middle East) has a bagful of arms, nuclear deals, aircraft and naval vessels to sell…Did someone say ‘merchants of death and destruction’…Arms manufacturing and sales, it is said, is big business and the deals provide the biggest kickbacks to the high and mighty…so who would among them object if the going is good!!!

Billions of dollars/rupees that go down the drain building up the huge arsenals could well be utilised for feeding, educating and keeping the teeming masses healthy in these extremely poor countries (where two square meals is a luxury). - pakspectator

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had telephone talks with Pakistani President AsifAli Zardari and Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, expressing her concerns over tense relations between India and Pakistan, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said on Monday. "She has made it part of her conversations to note that tensions are already high, that neither side should be taking actions that increase those tensions," Duguid said. - xin