NEW DELHI — India on Saturday said an embarrassing blunder in the country's
"most wanted fugitives list" given to Pakistan was a "wake up" call to security
agencies to become more professional.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram's statement came after India withdrew a list of
"most-wanted" fugitives allegedly being sheltered in Pakistan after the
government discovered that at least two were in India -- one of them in
prison.
Chidambaram also said the mistake does not damage government's credibility
and it will "not change the dynamics" of the relationship between nuclear rivals
India and Pakistan, or the status of talks between them.
He rejected suggestions that the gaffe may incite Pakistan to dismiss India's
repeated requests to hand over militant suspects New Delhi believes are in that
country.
"I don't think it damages credibility. I think it is a wake up call for the
agencies to become more professional," he told Indian television network
CNN-IBN.
However, Indian commentators have said the error undermined New Delhi's
efforts to pressure Pakistan over its alleged harbouring of criminals and
extremists who are suspected of plotting cross-border strikes.
The list was handed to Pakistan earlier this year but was only made public
last week as India sought to increase pressure on Islamabad in the wake of the
death of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
India's top police agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, has now taken
down the list from its website pending revision.
The Press Trust of India news agency quoted an unnamed home ministry official
earlier in the week as saying India may send a corrected list to Pakistan.
The list had included the founder of the banned Islamist group
Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India blames for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166
people.
Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management and a
homeland security specialist, said mistakes were bound to be made as India does
not have a centralised police database to share information between security
agencies, leaving the process open to human error.
"There's an entire international case built up against Pakistan which is very
well known. All this shows is India and the Indian authorities in a poor light
that they can't get their act together," he told AFP on Friday.
