Rehman Malik claims 26/11 key handler Abu Jundal is an Indian agent

New Delhi: Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik is winding up his visit to India, but not before stirring up another controversy. Malik claimed Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Abu Jundal, who was allegedly present in the control room during the Mumbai attacks, is an Indian agent.

"Abu Jundal's statement was taken in Saudi Arabia. In his own statement, Jundal says he is a criminal having been charged in many cases. He also worked as one of the sources of a very elite agency of India. I will put it in another way, you become a source and you become a double agent," Malik said.

Malik, who said prime minister Manmohan Singh is only willing to visit Pakistan after there is a concrete action taken on 26/11, was also virtually non-committal to take any steps to arrest 26/11 mastermind, Hafiz Saeed. "I expect that the courts are given their due respect and if the High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan have declared that this information is not evidence then they are insufficient grounds. Also they have prohibited us to not make arrest. The determination of Pakistan is very much there to arrest him but with evidence."

"Still hopeful courts will allow us to hand over voice samples. But why doesn't India match Hafiz Saeed's voice with the handler-tapes they have," Malik said.

The senior Pakistani leader had also angered India when he claimed he had not heard Kargil war hero Captain Saurabh Kalia's case, who was brutally tortured and killed by Pakistani army, and said the captain may have died due to the weather. However, Malik added that he felt insulted by the media's reaction to his remark on captain Kalia. "I am not insulting captain Kalia, but media insulted me. I was not briefed on the case," he said.

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