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The Taj Mahal hotel burns during a gun battle between soldiers and militants holed up inside the hotel during the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008. The sole surviving attacker, Ajmal Kasab, was sentenced to death by a court in May. India's Supreme Court on Monday, October 10, 2011 stayed the death sentence pending an appeal Image Credit: AP

New Delhi: Former Pakistan National Security Advisor (NSA) Mahmud Ali Durrani on Monday admitted that a terrorist group based in his country carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

This is the first admission by any high-ranking Pakistani official that confirms India's stand that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plotted and executed the carnage nine years ago.

"I hate to admit that the 26/11 Mumbai attack carried out by a terror group in Pakistan is a classic trans-border terrorist event," said Durrani, who was the NSA when 10 Pakistani terrorists sailed into Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and killed 166 Indians and foreigners.

Durrani was speaking here at the 19th Asian Security Conference held at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.