India today rubbished as"ridiculous" Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik's claimthat Mumbai attack handler and LeT operative Abu Jundal was anoperative of a "very elite" Indian intelligence agency even ashe stood by his remark.
"Such a statement is ridiculous. Jundal was working withthe LeT in Pakistan's soil when the Mumbai terror attack wascarried out," Home Secretary R K Singh told PTI in a strongreaction to Malik's statement.
Referring to Jundal, who was present inLashar-e-Taiba(LeT) control room during the 26/11 attack in2008 and was deported from Saudi Arabia recently, Malik todaysaid Jundal had confessed that he was a known criminal, havingbeen charged in many cases.
"He also worked as one of the sources of a very eliteagency of India. Now, see, he has used agencies also and wentrogue. Put it another way, you become a source, you become adouble agent. While he is working, living in India, he mighthave gone rogue and then these three individuals go toPakistan," he said delivering a lecture at Observer ResearchFoundation.
Malik said Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley hadconspired with Al Qaeda terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, a retiredmajor of Pakistan Army and three Indian terrorists -- AbuJundal, Jabbiullah and Fahim Ansari -- and roamed freely andplotted India's worst terror attack.
Malik yesterday claimed that Jundal, who is is one of thekey accused in the Mumbai terror attack case, was an agent ofIndian intelligence agencies.
On Malik's remark that Indian agencies could haveprevented the carnage, the Home Ministry in a statement saidthe main issue was that the Mumbai attack was conceived andplanned and directed from the soil of Pakistan.
Pakistan did not take any action against these terroristelements when the plan was being conceived and put intoeffect, it said.
The Home Ministry also said even after the Mumbai terrorattack when full facts were known to the world, Pakistan washesitating to take action against key conspirators and keyoperatives.