2005 Cricket Visas: Politicians Ignored Intelligence Concerns, Paved Way for 26/11

The conspiracy behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 was set in motion as early as 2003 under the direction of top Pakistani military leaders General Pervez Musharraf, then-Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and later ISI chief, Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Despite repeated warnings from Indian intelligence officials, political pressure from figures like Congress' Rajiv Shukla and Nationalist Congress president Sharad Pawar led to relaxed visa norms for Pakistani nationals during the 2005 India-Pakistan cricket series, a decision that opened the door to the devastating 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks including the entry into India of one of the main conspirators of the entire terror attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba's Sajid Mir.

This critical oversight allowed Mir to infiltrate India under the guise of a cricket fan, setting in motion a meticulously planned conspiracy to cripple India economically.

Significantly, after the attack, Indian intelligence agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau had suggested that India should hit back strongly as the intelligence gathered by IB and other agencies had assessed that Pakistan was ill prepared to counter or defend itself against India's military options.

However, the political leadership of the time decided not to act on this.

When Dr Manmohan Singh assumed office as Prime Minister in 2004, the Indian government started actively pursuing ways to better relations with Pakistan, both overtly and covertly.

In the pursuit of this, a bilateral cricket series was proposed that eventually materialized in March-April 2005, in which three test matches and six one day internationals were played across various parts of India.

However, this initiative was used by the Pakistani individuals named above to open a dangerous backdoor, officials said. In the run-up to the series preparations, Pakistan insisted that visas should be granted to all Pakistani nationals, who wished to attend the matches in India, which was met with a sharp response from Indian security agencies.