BJP, Cong take on Pak after Sharif's 26/11 remark

After former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted that the terrorists sent by Pakistan were responsible for the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress parties on Saturday lambasted the country's involvement in the same.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told ANI, "Pakistan is solely responsible for 26/11 terrorist attack. We have already provided enough evidence of the same to them but they have always denied those facts and all the related reports. The entire world knows this reality that Pakistan is responsible for 26/11 terrorist attack in India. If Nawaz Sharif has finally accepted this fact then it is great news."

He asserted that Pakistan continued to be a safe haven for all terrorists across the world.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir also asserted that Pakistan was solely responsible for the 26/11 attacks, adding that the Centre was ready to cooperate with Pakistan to combat terrorism.

"We always maintained that Pakistan is behind terror attacks here (in Mumbai). We weren't waiting for their former Pakistan Prime Minister's confession. Hope their current government understands, that we're now ready to help Pakistan and step forward to combat terrorism," Ahir told ANI.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rajiv Satav, while blaming Pakistan for orchestrating the 26/11 attacks, underscored that it was high time that the Centre took strict action against the Pakistani government.

Recalling that former prime minister Manmohan Singh too said that Islamabad was involved in the Mumbai attacks, Satav told ANI, "Former prime minister (Manmohan Singh ji) has already said that Pakistan is behind the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. He was very strict with the Pakistani government when he was the Prime Minister. This is a very serious matter now."

He asserted that the tough stand was toned down after Narendra Modi was sworn-in as the Prime Minister in 2014.

"Prime Minister Modi went to Pakistan to attend Sharif's birthday celebration. And the very next few days, terrorists from Pakistan attacked the Pathankot Air Force base," Satav added.

Six heavily armed terrorists from Pakistan attacked the Pathankot Air Force station in the early hours of January 2, 2016. The ensuing encounter lasted five days and claimed the lives of seven security personnel.

Satav urged the Modi government to take strict action against Pakistan especially after Sharif's comment.

On Friday, Sharif told in an exclusive interview to Pakistan's news media, The Dawn, that terrorists sent by Pakistan were responsible for the 26/11 attacks.

"Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can't we complete the trial?" Nawaz noted in an interview to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper in a reference to the Mumbai attacks-related trials which have stalled in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court.

Pakistan has so far not completed trial in the 26/11 case.

On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists had sailed into Mumbai from Karachi and carried out coordinated attacks in different parts of the city, killing about 166 people and injuring over 600 others.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) was believed to have plotted the 26/11 attacks. Its mastermind, Hafiz Saeed, has been roaming freely in Pakistan.

India has, time and again, protested against Islamabad for harbouring Saeed, who is wanted for allegedly plotting the 2008 attack.