In an unprecedented move, Pakistan today agreed to send the chief of its main spy agency to New Delhi for sharing intelligence with Indian counterparts amid persistent accusations that Mumbai attackers had come from Karachi.

The decision to send Lt Gen Shujaa Pasha, director general of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was taken by country’s top leadership in a meeting after both President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani separately spoke to Indian premier Manmohan Singh to assure him full cooperation in the investigations for unveiling all facts behind the Mumbai bloodbath.

The Prime Minister’s Office said the “request for dispatching the ISI chief came from Manmohan Singh for the exchange of information”. A press release from the PMO recalled that the Indian Prime Minister was the first foreign leader to call Gilani soon after the deadly Marriott blast in Islamabad on September 20 last and offered all possible cooperation.

Gilani talked to Manmohan Singh early this morning after which President Zardari also rang up the Indian leader. Later, both Zardari and Gilani held an emergency meeting and decided to promptly respond to the request for sending the ISI chief. The modalities for Gen Pasha’s visit were set in motion immediately and officials said he may leave for New Delhi any time within next 48 hours.

With tensions mounting between the two neighbours in the wake of Indian accusations, Pakistan’s friends also moved in to press the Pakistani leadership to take concrete action to allay Indian suspicions. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called Zardari late Thursday night to urge him for taking early steps to avert the evolving dangerous escalation.

Many analysts likened the current mood in India to that prevailing in the wake of December 13, 2001, attack on Indian Parliament after which India massed nearly half a million troops on Pakistan’s borders, raising a grave threat of even a nuclear war.

In their conversation with Manmohan Singh, Zaradri and Gilani reiterated strong condemnation of the “detestable” acts of terrorism in Mumbai. When Manmohan Singh pointed out that preliminary investigations had revealed that the terrorists, who appear to have been well trained and equipped for a highly sophisticated operation they launched in Mumbai, had come from Pakistan, Zardari asserted that Pakistan itself was a victim of terror.

The President appreciated the fact that the Indian Prime Minister had sought the ISI chief’s visit for the exchange of information and emphasised that both countries had common interest to confront the terrorists.

Though both governments have been talking about evolving a common strategy for combating terrorism, this is the first significant move by India to suggest a personal visit by the chief of the ISI, which the Indian government and the defence establishment have often blamed of masterminding acts of terrorism in India.

Manmohan Singh in his address to the nation on Thursday stopped short of naming Pakistan as the source of Mumbai attacks and referred only to India’s “neighbours”. But external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee today categorically stated that the attackers had come from Karachi.

The Indian civil and military security officials and the media also pointed the finger towards Pakistan.

A former chief of ISI, Lt Gen Asad Durrani (retd) termed as “unprecedented and odd” the move to send Gen Pasha to India saying it carried certain unpalatable implications strengthening the insinuations.