NEW DELHI: A top intelligence official who was part of India’s assessment team evaluating possible responses after Pakistan staged the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks has said that New Delhi missed a rare operational window to eliminate the top Pakistan-based terror leadership, even as domestic intelligence evaluations had concluded that Islamabad was in no position to wage a full-scale war and was willing to “sacrifice” the leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba to avoid escalation.

The official said Indian intelligence agencies had given complete operational clearance and conveyed that the threat of escalation from Pakistan’s side was extremely low. “We gave the entire clearance from our side. We provided the necessary inputs that we are required to gather. As per our assessment

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