Militants from Pakistan responsible for Mumbai 26/11 attacks: Nawaz Sharif

India has accused Lashkar founder and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed of masterminding the Mumbai attacks. The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information of Saeed who has forayed into national politics.

Ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif gestures during a press conference in Islamabad on May 10, 2018. Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court over graft allegations last year and banned him from politics for life, while foreign minister Khawaja Asif was also disqualified by the Islamabad High Court late last month for violating election laws. / AFP PHOTO / AAMIR QURESHI

New Delhi: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in an interview admitted that militants thriving in the country were responsible for killing over 160 people in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. "Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?”, he said in a reference to the Mumbai attacks-related trials which have stalled in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper. Sharif's comments assume significance as Pakistan has been firmly denying India's allegation that state actors were involved. India has accused Lashkar founder and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed of masterminding the Mumbai attacks. The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information of Saeed who has forayed into national politics. Meanwhile, the political future of Sharif, who leads the country's most powerful political family and the ruling PML-N party, has been hanging precariously since his ouster as prime minister. If convicted, he can be jailed.