Chidambaram to go to US with 26/11 evidence

Pakistan will have its wish. Calling Islamabad's bluff, India will next week give a dossier of evidence from the Mumbai terror attacks, which will include damning evidence showing Pakistan's complicity in the planning and execution of the attacks.

After a couple of weeks when India seemed to be losing the diplomatic battle with Pakistan, the government's new move is being regarded as a major diplomatic campaign. Pakistan has spent the past days either in strongly-worded denials regarding either their terrorists or their links to Mumbai.

The dossier will be given to Pakistan, China, US, UK and other key countries. The evidence will be given to their ambassadors in India as well as in their capitals simultaneously. "We expect Pakistan to act on the evidence we provide," said senior government sources.

The other countries will be expected to use the dossier to push Pakistan to act against the terrorists. The core of India's strategy post-Mumbai continues to be to push the international community to act against Pakistan. On Saturday, PM Manmohan Singh continued the tirade. While stating that war was no solution, he said in Shillong, "I hope some sense will prevail on the leadership of Pakistan to recognise that tackling terrorism is an area that needs cooperation."

"It (Pakistan) has to take action on the demand from all civilised countries that the perpetrators (of Mumbai attacks) are brought to book. We hope that these criminals will be handed over to us to face trial," Singh said.

But the policy that is believed to be yielding diminishing returns, and by sharing evidence India hopes to get the international community to lean on Pakistan in a more forceful way.

The dossier contains the detailed confession of the lone terrorist held in the Mumbai terror attack Amir Ajmal Kasab, photographs and identities of all the terrorists, phone call logs, the GPS device's information and phone call intercepts — pretty much everything that has now emerged in the public domain. The evidence, being put together, also includes the logbook recovered from the vessel in which the 10 terrorists came from Karachi, records of satellite phone used by the attackers and transcript of conversations between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan during the attack, sources said.

The dossier will also include the corroborative evidence tracking the journey of the attackers from Karachi to Mumbai. Investigators have found evidence to show that the terrorists, who struck at Taj Hotel, Trident Hotel and Nariman House on November 26, were in touch with their handlers in Karachi even while their three-day engagement with security forces was on.

Meanwhile, home minister P Chidambaram is expected to make his first trip to the US next week in his current capacity. His visit will almost dovetail into Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20.

The details of the visit were finalized between Chidambaram and US ambassador David Mulford on Saturday. Chidambaram's visit comes as India takes its first steps to set up a more robust intelligence and homeland security setup. The US has agreed to share its experiences in the wake of 9/11 which saw them setting up their systems.

Chidambaram's trip to US also comes after a quiet visit by the US' director of national intelligence Mike McConnell. Chidambaram is expected to meet US secretary of department of homeland security Michael Chertoff and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

The US' top investigating agency, FBI, has shared quite a bit of its own findings with the Indian government. FBI was granted unprecedented access to all the evidence and intelligence collected by the Indians as well as interviewing Kasab. A lot of their findings will make it to the dossier.

The expected diplomatic gains from the move are still unclear particularly as it is becoming clear that countries like the US, China and Saudi Arabia -- the three that have any influence on Pakistan -- may not be willing to add that extra heft against Pakistan, loath to pressure a fragile civilian government. US also has to worry about Pakistan seizing upon an intervention of it for India to formally pull out of the fight against Taliban.

In his remarks on Saturday, the PM again said, "The growing menace of terrorism and naxalism is a cause of worry. The government will not compromise with terrorism...There were some initial setbacks, but we will overcome them. The government will go to any extent to root out terrorism from the country."