Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured

Washington, Feb. 16: The CIA orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, allowing the two to quietly share highly sensitive evidence while the Americans served as neutral arbiters, according to US and foreign government sources.

The exchanges, which began days after the 26/11 assault, gradually helped the two sides overcome mutual suspicions and paved the way for Islamabad’s announcement last week acknowledging that some of the planning for the attack had occurred on Pakistani soil, the sources said.

The intelligence went well beyond the public revelations about the 10 Mumbai terrorists, and included communications intercepts and an array of physical evidence detailing how the gunmen and their supporters planned and executed the killing spree.

Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies separately shared their findings with the CIA, which relayed the details while also vetting the intelligence and filling in blanks with gleanings from its networks, the sources said.

The US role was described in interviews with Pakistani officials and confirmed by American sources with detailed knowledge of the arrangement. The arrangement is ongoing. Indian officials declined to comment.

Officials from both countries said the unparalleled co-operation was a factor in Pakistan’s decision to bring criminal charges against nine Pakistanis accused of involvement in the attack.

“India shared evidence bilaterally, but that’s not what cinched it,” said a senior Pakistani official. “It was the details, shared between intelligence agencies, with the CIA serving mainly as a bridge.” The FBI also participated in the vetting process, he said.

A US official said the effort enabled the Pakistani side to “deal as forthrightly as possible with the fallout from Mumbai”.

“Intelligence has been a good bridge,” the US official said. “Everyone on the American side went into this with their eyes open, aware of the history… the tensions. But at least the two countries are talking, not shooting.”

A Pakistani official insisted that Islamabad’s commitment was genuine. He predicted that the two governments would co-operate to an unprecedented degree in prosecution and trial, which he said would occur separately in the two countries with participation from both sides.