Pakistan dismisses media reports on Headley

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Jun 10 (PTI) Pakistan Thursday dismissed
reports that LeT operative David Headley had linked serving
Pakistani army officers to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, saying
they were based on "misguided leaks" aimed at maligning the
country.
Asked about Indian media reports that Headley had
named three Pakistan Army officers who collaborated with the
terrorists responsible for the attacks, Foreign Office
spokesman Abdul Basit said they were based on "self-serving
and misguided leaks which are meant only to malign our
security agencies and Pakistan".
"These reports are not worth our comments," Basit
told a weekly news briefing at the Foreign Office.
Headley, who has confessed to plotting the deadly
26/11 attacks, is being questioned by a team of Indian
investigators in the US.
Basit said it was "important (and) high time" that
India dispensed with its "historical bias against Pakistan so
that our two countries can make a new beginning in South Asia
with a view to promoting peace and prosperity in our region".
The reports had said that Headley had told Indian
investigators who questioned him that three majors of the
Pakistan Army had collaborated with the terrorists who carried
out the attack.
Headley also purportedly said that members of the
Lashker-e-Taiba carried out the attacks under the "guidance"
of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Basit also parried a question about US Assistant
Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake's remarks that
the US administration had sought assurances from Pakistan that
weapons provided by America would not be used against India.
"He (Blake) has said what he had to say and I have
nothing to add to what he has said," Basit said.
The spokesman remarked that the trust deficit
between Pakistan and India was "not a new phenomenon" and has
been there "for decades because of several reasons".
Basit said: "We believe that in order to move
forward meaningfully with a view to bridging this trust
deficit, it is important that as agreed by the two Prime
Ministers in Thimphu that the two sides discuss all the issues
which continue to bedevil our relations." (MORE) PTI