Official access to Headley will help India: BJP

Official access for Indian investigators probing the Mumbai terror attack to Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley will help prove to the world Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 strikes, the Bharatiya Janata Party has stated.

"It (consequences of his pleading guilty before a United States court) is a mixed bag. As we cannot get extradition, it is a loss. But, at the same time, we can get official access and can officially question him so our dossiers (against Pakistan) will be more weighty," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

He asserted that though Pakistan may ultimately dismiss Headley's confessions as 'mere papers' and not evidence, the involvement of the neighbouring country in the 26/11 terror attacks would be established more firmly and be 'very clear' to the world.

"Now the trial of Ajmal Kasab (lone surviving terrorist in the 26/11 case) is winding up. So, I think we can expect the result in that case also," he said.

Javadekar took a dig at the United Progressive Alliance government for making a 'unilateral offer' of foreign secretary-level talks to Pakistan in spite of the neighbouring nation's continued support to terror.

"The real test of India lies in how it deals with Pakistan because Pakistan has not changed a bit. It has not done anything, not taken any credible steps. Terror continues, infiltration is growing. Still, the government did a sudden u-turn and unilaterally offered talks," he said.

This move had emboldened the Pakistani establishment, especially the Inter Services Intelligence, to simultaneously do business with India and plot terror against it, Javadekar alleged. He said it was the ISI's policy to inflict a thousand cuts and wounds on India.