Nawaz Sharif defends his Mumbai attack statements

Maintaining his stance on his statements regarding Mumbai attacks in 2008 by Pakistani terrorists, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that he has not said anything wrong in his interview.

Speaking to the media outside an accountability court on Monday morning, Sharif contented that what he had said in his interview has already been said by former President Pervez Musharraf, Mahmood Durrani and Rehman Malik before.

Reading out a paragraph of his interview from the newspaper it was published in, the three-time prime minister asked what was wrong with his statements and said that armed forces, civilians and police have given tremendous sacrifices. Sharif added that he was now being called a traitor. "Calling me a traitor who has given Pakistan atomic power," he added.

Sharif has come under severe criticism after his interview to DAWN newspaper was published, in which he said, "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 asked for the explanation as to why the trial regarding it has not been completed.

For his controversial statement, a meeting of the National Security Committee, the country’s top civil-military body, is being conducted today.