Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the birthplace of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Thurs...
Former President Pranab Mukherjee and BJP senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi during the National Conference on 'Towards Peace, Harmony and Happiness: Transition to Transformation', ...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee greets former prime minister Manmohan Singh during a ceremony to present 'Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament for 2017, and Development', i...
Former chief justice of India TS Thakur presents 'Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament for 2017, and Development' to former prime minister Manmohan Singh as former president ...
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi addresses during a ceremony to present 'Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament for 2017, and Development', in New Delhi. Also seen are fo...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee pays floral tribute to former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her 101st birth anniversary, at Shakti Sthal in New Delhi.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee and former prime Minister Manmohan Singh after paying homage to Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru on his 129th birth anniversary at Shanti Van in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets the former president Pranab Mukherjee, in New Delhi.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee, former vice-president Hamid Ansari, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi attend a prayer meeting at the mem...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee and TMC President and former union minister GK Vasan at the inauguration for new premises of King Makers IAS Academy, in Chennai.
In this file photo, President Pranab Mukherjee conferring the Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence, in New Delhi.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee and former prime minister Manmohan Singh during VC Padmanabhan Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award 2018, in New Delhi.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee during the Iftar party hosted by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, in New Delhi.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the closing ceremony of ‘Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg’, an (RSS) event to m...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and other leaders at the closing ceremony of ‘Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg’, a...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee speaks during the closing ceremony of ‘Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg’, an (RSS) event to mark the conclusion of a three-year training camp...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the closing ceremony of ‘Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg’, an (RSS) event to m...
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the birthplace of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the birthplace of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Former president Pranab Mukherjee with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the birthplace of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
"Jordari, Jordari," the voice is reported to have said in perfect Benglish, "I weel shee you."
Words to this effect is what, we all laughed last year, must have made a rattled Asif Zardari rush to the Americans, complaining Pranab Mukherjee had threatened him at the height of the Mumbai siege.
Except the Benglish-spouting gent wasn't Pranab.
It now appears that the hoax calls that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war post 26/11 were -- yes, it seems incredulous -- made by none other than Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of the dreaded terrorists freed by India during the Kandahar hijack crisis.
Surely the Pakistanis cannot be that easily fooled? Particularly, because anybody who has heard or met Pranab-da -- as Zardari indeed has -- would always remember his distinctively endearing accent.
That someone could have put on a heavy Bengali accent and mimicked Pranabda, we thought, was a possibility. But Omar Sheikh?
He apparently tried calling Condi Rice and Pranab Mukherjee himself and was not allowed access, which is how it should be when it comes to call filteration for such high-profile personages.
It does beggar belief that not only were the calls actually put through to Kiyani and Zardari or, as the Dawn report puts it, that Gen Kayani was bewildered by the caller’s threatening tone.
He is confined in a high security cell of Karachi Jail, has a long record of militancy, from kidnapping foreigners in Mumbai in 1994 to possible involvement in 9/11, Parliament attack case and kidnapping Daniel Pearl in Jan 2002. But still has -- or, at least, had -- access to a mobile phone that he seems to be putting to good use. I am amazed that the Americans aren't even ensuring that he was being monitored properly. Another common thread of course is that Omar Sheikh's Pak handler Ilyas Kashmiri also handled Headley, also under investigation for 26/11
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