Obama man calls for civilian control of ISI

Islamabad on Monday continued to face pressure from the United States over the Mumbai attacks with Democratic Senator John Kerry agreeing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Pakistan needs to do more to combat terrorists based on its territory.

Kerry, who is considered close to US President-elect Barack Obama, suggested that Pakistan must act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the leaders of such terrorist organisations. He also said Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence should be under civilian control.

India has said that the LeT had carried out the Mumbai attacks. Delhi has also thrown hints that ISI had a hand in planning the operation.

Kerry, who is slated to be the next chairperson of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is travelling next to Islamabad and is expected to tell Pakistani leaders to take on terror groups on its territory.

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Movie inspired blast plot?

The Perpetrators of the Saturday blasts that have claimed 46 lives so far seem to have been distinctly influenced by the plot of Contract, directed by Ram Gopal Varma - which released 10 days ago - police sources told HT.

In the film, the main villain, Sultan, outlines his plan of first setting off low-intensity explosions in crowded places, and then, when the injured throng the nearest hospital, triggering a much bigger blast at the hospital itself.

In Ahmedabad too, there were 19 relatively less lethal blasts at first, which saw the injured being rushed to hospitals. These were followed by two deadly high-intensity explosions at two hospitals - the Civil Hospital and the LG Hospital - that killed 27 people.

"The modus operandi was unique," Ashish Bhatia, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) told HT, confirming the strategy .

Forensic and counter-terrorism experts of the Gujarat police were engaged in investigations on Sunday even as the blasts saw a high , alert being sounded in several states across the country Prime Minister Manmohan Singh .

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