The Pakistan Army is said to be 'extremely upset' with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's alleged admission that Pakistan had a significant role to play in the terrorist attacks that took place across Mumbai between November 26 and 29, 2008, which claimed the lives of 166 persons and injured more than 300.


It may be recalled that on Saturday evening, in an interview given to the Dawn newspaper, Sharif suggested terrorists from Pakistan had "crossed the border" to attack Mumbai and added that such terror strikes could have been prevented.


In the interview, Sharif said, "Militant organisations (in Pakistan) 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?"


Sharif, however, did not name Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed or known terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Mohammad that the international community clearly acknowledges as operating from Pakistan soil with impunity in the interview.


Sharif also lamented that Pakistan had isolated itself. He seemed to suggest that Islamabad should look into why its narrative that "it had been fighting terrorism had not been accepted by the international community despite sacrifices".


Sharif's statement has, according to sources, left the Pakistan Army extremely worried that "this will give more weight to India's narrative that Pakistan is not doing enough" to rein in terrorist modules operating from its soil, and particularly from areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.  -- ANI