NEW DELHI, Dec 16: Had the intelligence and security agencies in India and Pakistan been cooperating they could have prevented the Mumbai terror carnage of November 2008, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said here on Sunday.

Press Trust of India quoted him as blaming the Indian security agencies for their ‘failure’ to prevent the attack and he alleged that Indian non-state actors were involved in the massacre.

Mr Malik also said had there been interaction between Pakistan and India and regular sharing of information, the 26/11 attack could have been prevented.

He said Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley had conspired with Al Qaeda terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, a retired major of Pakistan Army, and three Indian terrorists — Abu Jundal, Jabbiullah and Fahim Ansari — and roamed freely and plotted India’s worst terror attack.

“So it is not a state-sponsored drama, state-sponsored action. It is action by non-state actors. Triangular nexus between Headley, (Ilyas) Kashmiri, the enemy of Pakistan, a major who deserted the Pakistan Army, having joined LeT and of course three Indians,” he said delivering a lecture at Observer Research Foundation.

Mr Malik said that during investigations, it had come to be known that they carried out recce of the targets and shot films uninterrupted and without notice of law enforcement agencies.

“If you put things together, there are three guys, one coming from the US, and he has that money, he has got credit cards, he has moved all over, he had created franchise, he had created a social circle. All these should have come to the attention of some agencies.

“Now the agencies failed. Both here and in Pakistan. So, we have failed. Why? Because, there was no interaction between Pakistan and India,” he remarked.