I live in daily dread of another 26/11: Narayanan

In an interview to Karan Thapar on the news channel CNN-IBN, he also questioned the credibility of the police first information reports (FIRs) Pakistan has filed against Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks.

Asked how seriously scared was he that there could be a second major ‘Mumbai-like’ strike on India, Narayanan said: “Here you are asking me a question that I live in almost daily dread that something that I am looking at or Home Minister P Chidambaram.”

“The home minister takes a daily meeting at which I am also present and when he is not there I take that meeting. We get so many pieces of intelligence which pass across our table, many you can sort of weed out but as I said there are quite a few which if they are not able to nip in bud can turn dangerous.”

“However, it is difficult to say whether we will have another Mumbai because I think we are better prepared perhaps for that kind of situation, but it could be quite serious,” Narayanan said. Asked whether Pakistan scares him, Narayanan said: “Pakistan may not scare me, but some of Pakistan’s actions scare us, because I don’t think this really adds to anything except creating problems for us.”

In an apparent contradiction to the stand taken by Chidambaram who said that the FIRs against Saeed was Pakistan’s first positive step in booking the perpetrators of the Mumbai mayhem, Narayanan said it does not add any credibility to Pakistan’s commitment to act. “If you take the Saeed dossier that has been provided to Pakistan, I think we have marshalled what I would call Grade 1 evidence. You have the evidence from three people, three human beings, three admittedly terrorists - Kasab, Fahim Ansari, Soharabuddin - who talked of what Saeed had come talked to them, what he had said etc.”

“This is apart from other connecting evidence. I agree one can never be as sure what a court would (do) with that kind of evidence but if you are not even willing to test that, it certainly leaves in our mind a big question mark about where Pakistan stands on terrorism,” he said.