The Australian : Pakistani MP admits terrorist link

Pakistani MP admits terrorist link

by Bruce Loudon | South Asia correspondent | November 17, 2006

A NEW deal between India and Pakistan to set up a joint anti-terrorism commission was overshadowed yesterday by reports that Islamabad's Parliamentary Defence Secretary was "actively linked" to Lashkar-e-Toiba.

According to The Asian Age, Major Tanvir Hussain, speaking in a national assembly debate on the controversial attack by Pakistan's armed forces on a madrassa religious school in the Bajaur agency, said: "I want to inform this house that I, too, have been a member of this Lashkar-e-Toiba organisation."

The incendiary admission came just hours after top diplomats from the nuclear-armed neighbours wrapped up fresh talks in New Delhi.

Outside parliament, Major Tanvir reaffirmed his active links with the group and said he often addressed its meetings.

"I extend support to jihadi activists when they approach me seeking co-operation," Major Tanvir said. "I am still a member of LeT. I go to its congregations and deliver speeches."

At any time, Major Tanvir's statement would be acutely embarrassing to the Government of President Pervez Musharraf. Coinciding as it did with the conclusion of the talks in the Indian capital, it is potentially devastating for the modest progress on improved bilateral relations.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said he was surprised by the admission. "We will look into this and then tell you what is really behind this," he said yesterday.

Pakistan's negotiator in the New Delhi talks, Riaz Mohammad Khan, responded by suggesting the focus should be on what governments do and not on what individuals say.

Peace talks between Pakistan and India were suspended in July after the Mumbai train bombings, which killed 186 people and injured a further 800.

Yesterday, officials from both countries hailed the resumed negotiations, which also secured agreement to exchange information to prevent inadvertent nuclear conflict, as a significant step in the peace process.

But security analysts dismissed the talks as symbolic, saying they did little to reduce the risk of conflict between the neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

There was no progress on the core issue of Kashmir, the Himalayan territory claimed by both sides, or the number of troops on its Siachen glacier - the highest battlefield in the world.

Nor was any ground broken over India's allegations that Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency helped jihadis from LeT plan the blast and a string of other terrorist attacks on Indian soil.

Yet expectations of the resumed peace negotiations were always going to be modest. At their meeting in Cuba in September, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and General Musharraf agreed to try to implement a "joint anti-terrorism mechanism" to help the two countries work together to defeat the terrorist aims of groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Mr Menon, who led the Indian delegation at this week's bilateral talks, said the Mumbai attacks, so central to the dispute over terrorism between India and Pakistan, had not been discussed, out of respect for legal process.

"We cannot today give them (the Pakistanis) formal material or evidence, or make demands until we have completed our own legal processes," he said.

Instead, he agreed with his Pakistani counterpart, Mr Khan, to set up a three-person commission to share information about terrorist threats.

Analysts said this week's main achievement was that the two sides had met at all, so soon after the Mumbai train bombings.

"These talks are part of a process of building confidence between two countries which are very suspicious of each other," Jane's Defence Weekly Asia editor Robert Karniol said.

Additional reporting: The Times