The US considers India as a “strategic ally” while Pakistan is treated as a “hired gun”, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has said, as he blamed President Asif Ali Zardari for not daring to upset New Delhi for its alleged involvement in terror attacks in the country. Khan has said that Zardari does not want to “ruffle any feathers in New Delhi” or blame India for being “involved through Afghanistan in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.” “He (Zardari) doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers in New Delhi. He basically does what Americans want him to do. He is petrified of anything where he would get Americans upset,” Khan said.

Khan noted that the Inspector General of Police of the North West Frontier Province had publicly stated that there was an “Indian hand” in a recent suicide attack in Peshawar. “Yet Zardari didn’t utter a word. Well, India and America (have a) strategic alliance. India is considered a long-term strategic ally while Pakistan really is a hired gun and Zardari is a hired gun, petrified of saying something. And so he (Zardari) is scared of blaming India when the other government functionaries keep saying that India is involved through Afghanistan in terrorist attacks in Pakistan,” Khan told his biographer Frank Huzur in an interview.

Over the past few weeks, top Pakistani leaders have claimed that India is fomenting unrest in different parts of the country. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said evidence about India’s alleged role in such activities will be made public at the appropriate time. India has dismissed these allegations as baseless. The chief of the Pakistan Tekrik-e-Insaf party, who recently offered to media between the government and militants, said he did not care if his opponents labelled him as “pro-Taliban” or “anti-terrorist.” “I pity the understanding of my opponents and political adversaries. It doesn’t make any difference whatever opponents think.

My vision is clear. I want to see a sovereign Pakistan. The government is fighting an American war for a fistful of dollars. We are earning blood money,” he said. “If my party comes to power, I will make sure these people are punished so that nobody ever repeats these offences. The military operations produce militants,” Khan told Huzur, whose “Imran Versus Imran An Untold Story” is scheduled to be published next year. Khan also dismissed media reports about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“New Delhi should stop worrying about such eventualities and repose faith in the gallantry of Pakistan Army to defend its precious assets. There is no threat to our nukes, either from within as touted in certain quarters as from extremist elements or sympathisers of the Taliban in rank and file of the army. The Pakistan Army is not only moderate, it is also secular in its outlook,” he said. He claimed there is a growing perception in the Pakistani public that the “Indian government is fuelling militancy and encouraging terrorists a lot of suicide attacks, whereas our army and police believes Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan are carrying out these attacks.

But civilians believe Indians are behind the attacks. It is unfortunate such sentiments have set in. However, India is more popular on Pakistani streets than America today.” Asked if India-Pakistan relations will improve in the next five to 10 years, Khan replied, “I can’t say, but first the war on terror should be resolved. There will be no movement forward without resolving some core disputes. First, the Kashmir issue must be resolved. And, it must be resolved through dialogue with India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership on the table. I don’t believe in military solutions.” He added: “India today feels Pakistan is at the weakest, so they are pushing hard. They think this is the time to corner Pakistan and get maximum concessions out of Islamabad. The basis of all terrorism is all political. There will be another Hafiz Saeed unless we resolve political issues.”

Pakistan’s Consul General in Chicago personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, nabbed by the FBI for planning to carry out a major terror attack in India at the behest of LeT, the US authorities have claimed.

The FBI in its revised chargesheet filed before a Chicago court said the Consul General of Pakistan in Chicago personally knows both Rana and Headley alias ‘Daood Gilani’, as all three of them are from the same high school.

According to the website of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, Dr Aman Rashid is the Consul General in Chicago. “On or about September 25, 2009, Rana spoke by telephone with the Consul General at the Pakistani Consulate in Chicago in an effort to obtain a five-year visa for Headley to travel to Pakistan.

It is clear from the email traffic unrelated to terrorist plotting that the Consul General knows Rana and Headley personally as all three attended the same high school,” the FBI claimed.

However, the affidavit, a copy of which has been obtained by PTI, does not say anything if the Consul General was aware or had any inclination of the terrorist connection of Rana and Headley.

Rana (48) and Headley (49) are not only residents of Chicago, but were product of same military school in Karachi.

American national Headley, whose assistance was sought by Lashkar-e-Toiba in planning a major terror attack in India, was helped by his Pakistani-Canadian friend Rana to obtain a visa for Pakistan so that he can travel to NWFP for training and meeting the LeT leaders, federal prosecutors have charged.

The chargesheet also indicates that LeT was planning to use Headley for a major terrorist attack in India. The transcripts of the taped conversations, both email and telephone, reveals that LeT was planning to use Headley for attack on a mysterious Indian actor ‘Rahul’ which Indian intelligence agencies say could be a code message.

Headley stated that he intended to travel to Pakistan in early October to meet with an unidentified LeT Individual ‘B’ and (Ilyas) Kashmiri, the FBI told the court. It said Headley had already travelled to Pakistan from late January to early March of 2009, during which he visited FATA.

While it does not mention to which high schools the three were students, the FBI told the court that postings to a Yahoo group of graduates of a military school located in the Pakistani town of Hasan Abdal (a group that refers to itself as ‘abdalians’) reflected that both Headley and Rana have participated in the group and referred to their attendance at that school.

Cadet College Hasan Abdal is located in the Hasan Abdal a historic city in northern Punjab of Pakistan, some 40 km north west of Rawalpindi. The town with a population of 50,000 is famous for Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib, one of the most sacred places of Sikhism.

The affidavit says the Consul General knows Headley by a different name — Daood Gilani. In seeking a visa for Headley, Rana stated that he wished to obtain the visa for a white American named “Headley” who did not have any Pakistani background at all.

“When the Consul General suggested that Rana send his friend to the consulate, Rana explained that he had sent his friend elsewhere to take care of some unspecified business so that someone else would visit the Consulate,” the FBI says.

“It is clear from the foregoing conversation that Rana was attempting to deceive the Consul General into granting a visa for Headley without the Consul General knowing for whom the visa would be issued,” the FBI told the court.

Rana told the FBI that he was aware that Headley had been affiliated with LeT, he had received training from them and he had met Kashmiri, leader of Harkat-ul-Jihad-Islami.

Rana also said that he was aware that Headley communicated with LeT Individual ‘B’ and ‘A’.

In Rana’s chargesheet, the FBI named two LeT leaders, whose names have not been identified and are referred to as LeT Member ‘A’ and LeT Member ‘B’. The FBI said the identity of both the LeT leaders are known to the Government.

LeT Member ‘A’ is an individual with substantial influence and responsibility within Lashkar-e-Taiba, while Individual ‘B’ is associated with both LeT and Kashmiri.

The FBI alleged that Headley, Rana, Individual ‘B’ and LeT Member ‘A’ have frequently used coded language and changed their methods of communications in order to conceal the nature and content of their communications.

SOURCE: TIMES NOW