In an unprecedented move, Pakistan said Friday it would send the head of the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI) to India to share information about the attacks in Mumbai, at the request of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made the pledge Friday in telephone call to Singh. And in a press conference Friday evening Gilani denied Pakistan had anything to do with the attacks in Mumbai. “I am saying it again, that we have nothing to do with the attacks in Mumbai,” Gilani said. “We condemn it, the whole nation has condemned it. We are already the victim of terrorism and extremism.” Gilani went on to speak of his commitment made during the phone call to Singh to send the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) chief to help Indian investigators and share intelligence. “When we are not involved, we have nothing to hide. Therefore one should not feel guilty,” Gilani said. The pledge to send the ISI Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha to Mumbai is a significant gesture by Pakistan's government. It is also notable because India has in the past accused the ISI of helping attacks on Indian targets by militants, including last July's bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gilani said that Singh had told him that a preliminary investigation indicated the attack originated from the Pakistani city Karachi. “I said, ‘Mister Prime Minister, we want to maintain excellent relations with our neighbour. We have to focus on real issues – both are poor countries.'” Gilani told reporters. “Both the countries are facing the problem of poverty, hunger and disease. We have to focus on real issues and we don't want to fight with each other.” Their conversation came a day after the Indian premier said in a television address that planners of the atrocity were based “outside the country” and warned against “neighbors” providing a haven to anti-India militants. Singh's statement was widely interpreted to be a veiled accusation and triggered many denials from Pakistan's government. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari made a separate telephone call to Singh Friday and pledged his government would cooperate “in exposing and apprehending the culprits and the masterminds behind the attacks,” the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee urged Pakistan to dismantle infrastructure supporting militants. He said Friday that initial evidence showed the militants had links with Pakistan. One of the militants arrested in Mumbai was a Pakistani national, the interior minister of Maharashtra state, R.R. Patil, told reporters. The use of heavily armed “fedayeen” or suicide attackers in Mumbai bears the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament. Both groups are outlawed in Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks. Indian TV reports said the Mumbai terrorists had a “Punjabi-Urdu accent”, suggesting that they were from Pakistan. But Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who arrived in India Wednesday for a four-day visit, called on India not to play politics over the attacks. “Do not bring politics into this issue. This is a collective issue. We are facing a common enemy and we should join hands to defeat the enemy.” He said he was shocked and horrified by the “barbaric” attacks.
