Thaindian News

Islamabad, Mar 26(ANI): The fact that Pakistan Interior Ministry officials were completely in the dark about a terror plot to attack cricketers during the ICC World Cup 2011 until it was revealed in a joint press conference by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Interpol chief Ronald Noble, has cast doubts whether Malik really knew about the would-be attackers beforehand.

While it is not known if Malik himself was in the picture, it has been credibly learnt and verified from more than three sources that no Interior Ministry officer, right from the top to the bottom level, was aware of the terror plot.

“The minister would have shared with us had he been in the knowledge of such a plot,” The News quoted a ministry officer, as saying.

This is in stark contrast with the thanksgiving talk of the Interpol Secretary General, who said the attempt had been foiled with the help of Pakistan, among other countries.

“Last week, with the help of Pakistan, we identified and arrested the terrorists who had left Karachi,” Noble told the press conference on Thursday.Informed officials, who doubt if the minister had any information, said that even National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) Director General Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Lodhi was caught off-guard as was Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman, who had to proceed for high-level talks to India.

Both these officials did not respond to repeated calls and messages that were dropped for securing their version, the report said, adding that the Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency also did not respond when approached in this regard.An NCMC official said that they got to know of a terror plot from a report published in an Indian newspaper.

“Consequently, we spread the word around to remain alert and keep an eye on suspected plotters. But at no point, we were given any information that someone had left from Karachi for carrying out terrorist activities,” the official said.Another officer said that if the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or any other intelligence agency had passed the information to Interpol, it had to be routed through the FIA headquarters, and that the Interior Secretary and the DG NCMC should have been aware of what was happening.

The official further said that bringing such a case into the knowledge of the secretary was more important, also for the reason that he was travelling to India this weekend for talks with his counterpart. (ANI)