With Saudi help, India nails Pak lies

Islamabad claimed falsely that Jundal was their citizen

Pakistan’s double-talk on fighting terror stands exposed with Saudi Arabia deporting 26/11 terror accused Syed Zabiuddin alias Abu Jundal.

A day after the news broke out that Jundal who was present in the Lashkar-e-Toiba-run Karachi-based control room to supervise and dictate through mobile phone the Mumbai terror strike in 2008, the Pakistani high commission here issued a statement that their government has “renewed its offer of cooperation in this domain”.

“As agreed at the highest level between Pakistan and India, terrorism is a common concern and counter-terrorism cooperation is in the mutual interest of both countries,” the statement, rarely issued at the time of a suspected terrorist arrest, by the high commission read.

This goes contrary to the dubious role Zardari government played while opposing for almost a year Jundal alias Zabiuddin Ansari’s deportation to New Delhi on the grounds that the suspected Lashkar terrorist was a Pakistani since he was travelling on a passport issued by them. Government sources said Jundal, a resident of Beed district in Maharashtra, was detained by Saudi authorities almost a year ago on an intelligence input country’s external spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) got. Armed with a dossier prepared by the RAW, the matter was taken up with the Saudi authorities in Riyadh who in turn sought the Pakistan government’s view as Jundal had become a Pakistani by then.

Jundal married a Pakistani woman in Muzaffarabad in 2009, another piece of evidence Islamabad used, during behind-the-scene hard diplomacy that followed for months, to impress that he was not an Indian but their citizen.

But, the UPA government decided to confront Pakistan with the DNA profiling of Jundal with the help of RAW and Intelligence Bureau (IB).

After taking DNA sample from him and his family, it was matched in a laboratory in the US with the help of the FBI which proved that Jundal was an Indian.

In between the cat fight to get Jundal, India also sought the help of the American government to influence Saudis to hand him over. It is learnt that the American government intervened and asked the Saudis to accede New Delhi’s request given the strong case against the suspected terrorist.

Finally, the Saudis decided to hand him over to India. A team of officials, including from the IB, went to get him to New Delhi and handed him over to the Delhi police’s special cell. New Delhi on Tuesday acknowledged the security and counter-terrorism cooperation Saudi Arabia had extended in Jundal’s episode. “Issues of this nature are rather new in the relationship between the two countries. I would like to share with you that our relationship with Saudi Arabia is expanding in a variety of ways,” official spokesperson and Joint Secretary (External Publicity), Syed Akbaruddin, told journalists.

Riyadh has been hesitant to step up its security or defence cooperation with New Delhi, primarily due to its close ties with Pakistan — the country that was blamed as the principal source of terror to India.