Pakistani Government Dismisses National Security Adviser Over Mumbai Remark

Islamabad, Pakistan (AHN) - The Pakistani government fired its national security adviser on Wednesday, hours after he announced that the only surviving gunman accused of the Mumbai terror attacks is Pakistani, state media reported.

Mahmud Ali Durrani, a retired general, was dismissed late Wednesday "for his irresponsible behavior (of) not taking Prime Minister and other stakeholders into confidence and lack of coordination on matters of national security," a statement from the office of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

Gilani also told Geo News that his national security adviser had given a statement about the nationality of the gunman without taking him or the government into confidence.

Durrani had said that Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani citizen amid rising tensions with India, which has insisted that the 10 gunmen responsible for the Mumbai attacks were part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based group and one of the largest and most active Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia.

More than 170 people died and 300 wounded during coordinated terror attacks in Mumbai, India's financial capital, from Nov. 26 to 29. Kasab was the only one of the 10 gunmen who was captured alive by Indian commandos.

India has turned over what it said was evidence linking the attacks to Pakistan. Transcripts of phone calls among the gunmen during the siege were trandlated by Indian authorities from Punjabi and English, according to Al Jazeera.

"We have three foreigners, including women,'' the transcript quotes one gunman calling from the Oberoi Hotel. Another replied, "Kill them."

Durrani was dismissed despite statements from Information Minister Sherry Rehman and Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq that Kasab is Pakistani.