New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) After having indicated that state actors - meaning Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) - could have been behind the Mumbai terror attack in November last year, India is now trying to tackle those who masterminded the attack through the very agency that it held responsible for it.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday that the Indian high commissioner in Pakistan, Sharat Sabharwal, had recently met ISI chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha in this regard.

“Our high commissioner (in Pakistan) has recently spoken to the ISI chief and their foreign office. We are hopeful that they will move ahead in punishing those behind the Mumbai terror attack,” the prime minister told media on board Air India One while returning from the G8-G5 summit in Italy’s quake-hit town of L’Aquila.

“They have given us some information on what they are doing about the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. I have not given up hope,” Manmohan Singh said.

Pasha is said to have also met other Indian officials in Islamabad recently.

“This is the first time such a meeting has taken place. The DG, ISI, normally does not meet Indian high commissioner or defence attaches in the Indian mission,” Satish Chandra, India’s former envoy to Pakistan, told IANS.

Chandra was, however, sceptical of the seriousness of Pakistan to punish the Mumbai attackers. “It could be just a trick. It is just to show to India and the international community that Pakistan is serious about punishing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, specially ahead of the Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting,” Chandra, also a former deputy national security adviser, said.

The fact that the prime minister mentioned the meeting of the ISI chief with Indian defence attaches also shows that the government is looking for an excuse to resume dialogue with Pakistan, Chandra said when asked about the significance of the development.

The meeting with the ISI chief and Pakistan’s foreign ministry is being seen by some as back-room diplomacy between India and Pakistan as top officials and leaders from both sides prepare to meet in the Egyptian city of Sharm-el-Shiekh this week on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon meets his Pakistani counterpart Salman Basheer July 14 for a review of Islamabad’s action against anti-India terrorism directed from its soil.

The foreign secretaries’ review will set the stage for the meeting between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh of India and Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh.

Immediately after the Mumbai terror attack November 26 last year, in which more than 170 people were killed, an angry India had sought action and the Pakistan establishment initially even announced that it would send ISI Director General, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha to India to talk about the matter.

However, under pressure from Pakistan’s powerful Army establishment, the Pakistan government retracted from its earlier statement of sending the ISI chief to India saying that it had nothing to do with the Mumbai attack which, it said, was done by “non-state actors”.

Manmohan Singh has already said that India will measure Pakistan’s response on the Mumbai attack at this week’s meeting and take further action.

India has stated that it is not yet satisfied with Pakistan’s action against those who masterminded the Mumbai attack. The case against Zaki-ur-Rehman Naqvi, whom India accuses to be the mastermind of the Mumbai attack, will come up for hearing before a Pakistani court later this month.

Asked if India was going soft on Pakistan regarding the Mumbai terror attack in November last year, the prime minister that India had to work with neighbours to ensure peace in south Asia.

“I have often said that we can choose our friends but have no choice with regard to neighbours.”

He said that India, which has been a victim of terrorism for nearly 25 years, has appealed to world leaders at all forums to put pressure on Pakistan to leave terrorism and walk on the path of friendship.