Ex- envoy insists RAW tried to kill him

Former Pakistan High Commissioner Bashir Wali Mohmand reiterated at a dinner given in honour of a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists on Tuesday night when he openly accused India’s external spy agency of staging the bomb blast in Colombo targeting his motorcade on August 14, 2006.

Mr. Mohmand who was one of the invitees at this dinner hosted by Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee kept everyone entertained with these revelations. The former High Commissioner who is now serving as Sri Lanka’s consul in his home region of the North West Frontier Province - one of the most volatile areas in Pakistan - said, to his surprise, the news of the blast had reached New Delhi before anywhere else. When he reached home soon after the blast the first to phone him were some journalists from New Delhi to inquire about his health and a top Indian envoy serving in Colombo.

“How did they know of the blast so quickly, unless they had prior knowledge?” he asked. The outspoken former diplomat and soldier said it was no secret that prior to him being posted as the High Commissioner to Sri Lanka; he had headed the Pakistani intelligence services. That was why even before he could assume duties in Colombo an Indian journalist well known for working for the Indian external spy agency - the Research and Analysis Wing - wrote an article opposing his appointment.

Mr. Mohamand said that one of his guards killed in the blast had a premonition of what was about to take place as a few days earlier when he visited his home he had told his mother that the next time he would return home in a coffin. The High Commissioner, who has a genuine love for Sri Lanka had even compensated the families of the dead and the wounded with his own money.