Sharif admits Pak hand in 26/11

Militant organisations are active. Call them nonstate actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill

150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me... Why can’t we complete the trial?

NAWAZ SHARIF, former PM, Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has questioned the policy of using Pakistan-based militant groups for cross-border attacks on India as he mounted a scathing attack on the powerful military establishment’s perceived meddling in politics.

Sharif, ousted from his post by the Supreme Court last July for dishonesty i n the Panama Papers case and subsequently barred from contesting elections for life, indicated during an interview with Dawn newspaper that Pakistan had been isolated by the world community for failing to counter terrorism.

On the campaign trail in Multan ahead of general elections expected in a few months, the three-time premier said: “Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me.

“Why can’t we complete the trial?” he added, an apparent reference to the trial of seven Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) members, including operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, for their alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable. This is exactly what we are struggling for. President (Vladimir) Putin has said it. President Xi (Jinping) has said it…we could have already been at 7% growth (in GDP), but we are not,” he added.

The Mumbai attacks trial, which began in early 2009, has stalled in an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad. The judge has been changed more than eight times and the chief prosecutor was recently removed.

Lakhvi is currently free on bail. MUMBAI: Two people were killed and several injured in clashes that broke out between groups of two communities following a minor dispute between two men in Aurangabad on Friday night.

About 100 shops and a large number of vehicles were set on fire as mobs ran riot through parts of the city. Around 11 police personnel were also injured.

Reports said tension had been simmering in the area over water connections to religious structures even as the trigger for Friday’s violence was a dispute over a borrowed mobile phone.