Nawaz's disclosure proves India's stand was right: Sitharaman

Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif's statement on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks proved that India has been right all through the way.

Nawaz Sharif on May 12 said that terrorists sent by Pakistan were responsible for the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that had claimed over 160 lives.

"It is a serious disclosure. Hasn't India been following it? Saying that we strongly believe that the handlers of the 26/11 offences were in Pakistan. This only proves India's stand has been right all through the way," Sitharaman told reporters here.

She went on to add that Pakistan's claims about portraying itself as a victim are all bogus.

"For a state which has been continuously in denial, even when proofs have been absolutely unquestionable, it is not surprising. But it is absolutely something which has to be thrown to the whole world to see, so that they know that all the lectures that Pakistan gives to the whole world about human rights and about how Pakistan itself is a victim, is all bogus," she added.

Nawaz Sharif yesterday said, "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 lone survivor, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was caught and was sentenced to death at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2012.

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

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