Pak foreign secy unwilling to confirm TV report on Kasab

Islamabad, Jan 7 (PTI) As a local television channel
reported quoting unnamed official sources as saying that the
lone surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks is a
Pakistani, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir today said he
would not not confirm the news report.

"I can at this point of time only say that our
investigation is continuing. We are not not in a position to
confirm (the media report)," he told CNN-IBN over telephone.

He said they were carrying their own investigations
and at this point of time "we can't confirm" the report that
he is a Pakistani.

Replying to the channel's claim that Pakistan National
Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durani had conveyed to it that
Kasab is a Pakistan and that he would be giving a report to
the Prime Minister's Office in this regard, Bashir said he had
just spoken to Durani, who told him that he had also heard
some media report.

Bashir said Pakistan welcomed investigation into the
issue and that the proper way to go forward would be carry it
out with responsibility and not not get into any controversy
on this point.

Asked if he was denying that Kasab is a Pakistani, he
said "what I am saying, mark my words, we are not not in a
position at this point to confirm this and it should not be
sensationalised."

He said India has provided "information" to Pakistan
on the Mumbai attacks and "we are prepared to work with our
friends in India to get to the bottom of it in a professional
way in a crime investigation.