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PAKISTAN REJECTS INDIAN ACCUSATIONS, PLAYS DOWN TENSION

Pamela Constable and Candace Rondeaux

The Washington Post, January 8, 2009

During a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan's foreign minister on Wednesday strongly rejected accusations by India that Pakistani government agencies had played a role in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November, insisting that his government wants to "get to the bottom" of the incident and hopes for cooperation with India, not "finger-pointing."

At the same time, Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief said in a rare public interview from Islamabad that his government has no desire to fight a war with India, Pakistan's larger neighbor and longtime rival, and that he views terrorism as the "real enemy" of his country.

But in a sign of the deep fissures within Pakistan's government over the Mumbai attacks, the country's national security adviser was fired in Islamabad on Wednesday after publicly acknowledging that the lone surviving gunman appeared to be a Pakistani citizen, an allegation previously denied by Pakistani authorities.

In an interview with CNN, Mahmud Ali Durrani said there appeared to be proof that all 10 gunmen had Pakistani roots. Officials from the Foreign and Information ministries confirmed that assertion, but the Foreign Ministry later retracted its statement, and within hours, government officials and national TV channels reported that Durrani, a former intelligence chief, had been dismissed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

On Tuesday, senior Indian officials all but accused Pakistani government agencies of having a hand in the three-day siege in India's financial capital that left more than 170 people dead. Indian authorities have blamed the attacks on a banned Islamist group based in Pakistan.

The contradictory statements came during a first-ever trip by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Afghanistan, where he and President Hamid Karzai agreed to jointly combat regional terrorism and appeared eager to mend fences after years of hostility between officials in Kabul and the previous government in Islamabad.

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