Homeland Security

Islamabad confirms Mumbai attacker was Pak national

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Jan 8, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Ajmal Kasab, Amir Iman, the lone attacker captured during the Mumbai attack, is a Pakistani national, the state television reported.

PTV quoted the Foreign Office spokesman as saying the concerned institutions have informed that Ajmal Kasab belongs to Pakistan.

This is the first time Pakistan is confirmed nationality of the attacker.

Earlier Pakistani authorities were insisting that there is no record of Ajmal Kasab with the country's National Data Registration Authority (NADRA).

Information Minister Sherry Rehman also confirmed that Kasab, now in the custody of the Indian police, is a Pakistani national.

Recent reports said that the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had stated that Kasab is a Pakistani national.

According to reports India had given access to the FBI Investigators Kasab for nine hours and after questioning him, they came to the conclusion that he was a Pakistani national as contended by Indian authorities.

Kasab was captured shortly after he and another attacker struck at a major railway terminal in Mumbai, India's financial hub on November 26.

Indian officials had said he was a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and belonged to Faridkot village in Pakistan's Punjab province.

Kasab's father had reportedly admitted to a Pakistani newspaper that the gunman whose pictures were beamed around the world by the media was his son.

Other residents of Faridkot have said that Kasab last visited the village about five to six months ago.