Pakistan fires national security adviser

Pakistan's decision to fire its national security adviser has exposed cracks within the shaky, civilian government as it faces growing U.S. and Indian pressure to punish the alleged plotters of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The move against Mahmood Ali Durrani, a former ambassador to Washington and a proponent of close ties with India, came hours after he and other top officials told reporters that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani citizen.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Durrani was fired late Wednesday because "he gave media interviews on national security issues without consulting the prime minister."

Indian media quoted Durrani as saying earlier that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani, while other top Pakistani officials separately confirmed it to media outlets.

There was no sign that the other officials would also be fired, suggesting that Durrani's ouster was caused by other, unpublicized reasons.

India had long alleged that Kasab - along with nine other militants who died during the siege - were Pakistani. Islamabad's refusal to acknowledge this was seen as a sign it was not prepared to follow through on vows to crack down on the organizers of the November attacks.

Doubts over Pakistan's commitment have been fueled by suspicions that the attackers were from Lashkar-e-Taiba - a militant group created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries and the trigger for two of their three wars since 1947.

Some analysts say the group maintains ties to the powerful military-run spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and that the government cannot act too aggressively against it as a result.

The United States is pushing for Islamabad to dismantle Lashkar and other militant groups, but does not want to destabilize the pro-Western government while al-Qaida and Taliban militants gain strength close to the Afghan border.

Durrani, a former general, had advocated improving India-Pakistan ties and was seen by some critics as too pro-American. There had been no public sign or media speculation in recent days that he was on his way out.

He declined to comment on his ouster, but said he wished the government luck.

"They have a lot of problems to deal with, and I wish them the very best because my loyalties are to my country," he told The Associated Press Thursday.

Political analyst Talat Masood said Durrani's national security appointment was controversial from the start because some considered him too pro-American - so the government may have been looking for a pretext to get rid of him.

He said the ouster "definitely reflects on the confusion that prevails in Pakistan in the functioning of the government and the indecisiveness over how to deal with India."

Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Pakistan's main opposition party, said it was the latest instance of confusion over who is in charge in Pakistan. He noted that an initial Pakistani offer to send the head of the spy agency to India to assist the Mumbai investigation was quickly revoked after apparent grumbling by the military.

"We need to show that decision-making in the country is very coordinated," Iqbal told Dawn News TV in Pakistan. "We should not look like we're making decisions in total panic or in total confusion."

Pakistan's decision to confirm Kasab's nationality came a day after India handed over a dossier containing transcripts of phone calls allegedly made during the siege by the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.