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ISI chief coming to India at the earliest

ISLAMABAD: In a move that unambiguously signalled its eagerness to defuse the tensions with India over the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan on Friday took the extraordinary decision to send the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence to New Delhi at the earliest for “an exchange of information” about the attacks.

The Director-General of the ISI is a serving Lieutenant-General in the Pakistan Army. The office is presently held by Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

He took charge of the ISI last month after a reshuffle in the top echelons of the Army. His visit would be the first by the head of Pakistan’s top intelligence agency to what it has historically projected as dushman humsaaya, Urdu for “enemy neighbour.”

The decision to send Lt. Gen. Pasha to India is nothing less than a shock for most Pakistanis, and is being described widely as “unprecedented.” It came after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday morning to express Pakistan’s condemnation of the Mumbai attacks.

It appeared intended to demonstrate that the Pakistan People’s Party-led government is ready to tread even the most uncharted territory for the sake of its relations with India, which seem endangered following New Delhi’s charge that the attackers came from Pakistan.

The Indian charge is held in Pakistan to be an “unsubstantiated knee-jerk reaction” and the decision is bound to be politically controversial. Still, the Prime Minister’s office went public with the decision through a press release within hours of the phone call, after Mr. Gilani met with President Asif Ali Zardari.

The press release disclosed that Dr. Singh had shared with Mr. Gilani that “preliminary investigations point towards Karachi.”

“Dr. Singh requested the Prime Minister to send DG ISI to India for exchange of information in this regard. The Prime Minister accepted the request and said that after working out modalities by both the governments, the ISI chief will visit India at the earliest,” it said.

Later in the day, Mr. Gilani told journalists in Lahore that Pakistan was offering its cooperation to India because it had “nothing to hide”.

“When we are not involved, why should we feel guilty about it? They say they need cooperation, especially intelligence cooperation. When we have nothing to hide, we should not feel about it,” he said, replying to a barrage of questions.

Gargi Parsai writes from New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to the visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and said “outrages” like the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and now on Mumbai would affect improvement in bilateral ties.

An External Affairs Ministry statement said Mr. Mukherjee told Mr. Qureshi that while the Pakistan government had said that it wanted a leap forward in bilateral relations, “outrages” such as these attacks were intended to make it impossible.

“We expect Pakistan to honour its solemn commitments not to permit the use of its territory for terrorism against India.”

He expressed the hope that the Pakistan government would take immediate action on the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. The groups responsible (for the attacks) and their supporters were acting against the interests of the government of Pakistan as well, Mr. Mukherjee told his counterpart.

Mr. Qureshi, who was at a meet-the-press session at the India Women’s Press Corps here, received Mr. Mukherjee’s phone call in the middle of the press conference.

“The Indian Foreign Minister has conveyed certain views. I have taken note of them and will share them with my leadership,” he told journalists.