Lyricist Javed Akhtar slams Pakistan in Pakistan over 26/11 attack

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New Delhi: The perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks did not come from Norway or Egypt but are still roaming freely in Pakistan and Pakistanis should not feel offended when India talks about the 2008 carnage, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar has said.

Akhtar made the comments on Sunday while attending the seventh Faiz Festival organised here in memory of celebrated Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Responding to a member in the audience who told Akhtar to take with him a message of peace and tell Indians that Pakistan is "a positive, friendly and loving country", the 78-year-old writer said: "We should not blame each other. It will solve nothing. The atmosphere is tense, that should be doused."

"We are people from Mumbai, we have seen the attack on our city. They (attackers) did not come from Norway or Egypt. They are still roaming freely in your country. So if there is a grievance in the heart of a Hindustani, you should not feel offended," Akhtar said at the festival which concluded on Sunday.

On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists belonging to Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba arrived via sea and opened fire, killing 166 people, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others during a 60-hour siege in Mumbai.

The attacks drew widespread global condemnation. Nine Pakistani terrorists were killed by the Indian security forces. Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012.

India has repeatedly said that the key conspirators and planners of the 26/11 attacks continue to remain protected and unpunished.

"The key conspirators and the planners of 26/11 terror attacks continue to remain protected and unpunished," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during the wreath-laying ceremony to pay tributes to the victims of the 26/11 attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel last year.

Akhtar also told the gathering that even though Pakistani artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mehdi Hasan have been warmly welcomed in India, Pakistan has never held a single show of Lata Mangeshkar.

"We hosted big functions of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Mehdi Hasan. You (Pakistan) never organised a function for Lata Mangeshkar," the poet said, drawing loud cheers and applause from the audience.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Kangana Renaut praised Akhtar for his candid remarks about the 26/11 terror attacks, tweeting: 'Ghar mein ghuss ke maara' (He hit them in their own land).

The truth behind 26/11 attack

Last month, a Pakistani newspaper admitted Lashkar-e-Taiba's role in Mumbai attacks. 

In a feature on the terrorist group that attacked Mumbai in 2008, the Pakistan newspaper The Friday Times accepted that the repercussions of their actions, especially for Pakistan, continue to this day.

It also gave the names of all the Pakistani terrorists involved in the 26/11 attack in Mumbai, where around 165 civilians were killed.

The newspaper feature appeared just a couple of days after the mastermind of the attack LeT terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki was declared a global terrorist by the United Nations, and the Pakistani Prime Minister in an interview with the Gulf newspaper in the previous week said that Pakistan is ready for a sincere dialogue with India."

India has been insisting, along with pieces of evidence, that the key conspirator of the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks is Lashkar Chief Hafiz Saeed, who continues to remain "protected and unpunished" by Pakistan.

Pakistan has been rejecting the allegations saying Islamabad would require "irrefutable and legally tenable evidence" for the "efficient disposal" of the case. Hafiz remains the most wanted terrorist.

Tariq Ali, a columnist in Pakistan, writes, "Perhaps the most lethal and well-organised militant group ensconced in Pakistan is the Lashkar-e-Taiba, led by the world-famous jihadi Hafiz Saeed."

Giving names and details of the attack in Mumbai, the article said, “This militant group was responsible for planning and executing the attack on the city of Mumbai on November 26 2008.”

The Pakistan newspaper article accepted that the terrorists were Pakistanis and trained in Pakistan, and were radicalised. In the details, the newspaper feature said that the terrorists left the shores of Karachi in a small boat and then shifted to a larger vessel called Al-Husseini on the high seas.

"On November 22, they hijacked an Indian fishing trawler, murdered the entire crew and continued their journey to Mumbai. Near the shore of Mumbai, they jumped into two small inflatable boats and landed at two different spots in the southern part of Mumbai."

The terrorist was armed to the teeth and carried AK-56 assault rifles, 9mm pistols and hand grenades. In addition, they held mobile phones and IEDs.

After reaching shore, they split up into four groups: One with four men and three with two men each.

First Team - One two-terrorist team comprised the lone survivor terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir (aka Qasab, alias Abu Mujahid from Okara) and his partner Ismail Khan (alias Abu Ismail from Dera Ismail Khan).

Amir and Khan took a taxi to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Mumbai's central train station. Considerable detail is now known about this attack team because Amir was arrested, and in late July 2009, he made a lengthy confession about the team.

The newspaper article says that Amir, in his confession, claimed that they had been instructed to take hostages and escape to nearby buildings where they were supposed to contact their operational commander, Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi.

A second team – consisting of Nasir, alias Abu Umar from Faisalabad and Babar Imran, alias Abu Akasha from Multan – proceeded to Nariman House, a centre run by the international Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch movement. They took thirteen hostages. Both terrorists were killed following an airdropping of National Security Guard commandos.

A third two-terrorist team – Abdul Rahman, alias Abdul Rahman Chhota, from Multan and Fahadullah, alias Abu Fahad, from Okara – travelled from the landing site to the Trident-Oberoi Hotel, where they, too, began killing indiscriminately. The siege at this hotel lasted for some 17 hours before the terrorists were killed.

The fourth terrorist team - It was the largest and was comprised of Hafeez Arshad (alias Bada Abdul Rahman from Multan); Javed (alias Abu Ali from Okara); Shoaib (alias Abu Soheb from Sialkot); and Nazeer (alias Abu Umer from Faisalabad). The team briefly entered the Leopold Café, a popular sidewalk restaurant, where they killed ten people with automatic weapons. The team next moved to the rear entrance of the nearby Taj Hotel. All of the attackers were at last killed by the Indian commandos.

The newspaper said that Pakistan's use of religion-inspired terrorists as a tool of foreign policy dates back to the very first skirmish with India, the Kashmir conflict in 1948.

"Militant groups founded on a religious ideology have been active in and outside Pakistan for the last seven decades and represent a negative and ugly face for the country."