India gives Pakistan evidence over Mumbai attacks

The Associated Press ,  New Delhi   |  Mon, 01/05/2009 4:39 PM  |  World

India gave Pakistan the most detailed evidence yet that it says ties the militants who attacked Mumbai to "elements" in Pakistan - responding Monday to weeks of demands from Islamabad for proof that the siege was launched from across the border.

India has blamed the November attacks that killed 164 people on Pakistani-based militants, but Islamabad has denied the accusations and requested proof.

The evidence handed to the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi on Monday included material from the interrogation of the lone surviving gunman, details of conversations between the gunmen and their alleged handlers in Pakistan, recovered weapons, and data from satellite phones, according to a statement from India's foreign ministry.

"This material is linked to elements in Pakistan," the statement said. "It is our expectation that the government of Pakistan will promptly undertake further investigations in Pakistan and share the results with us so as to bring the perpetrators to justice."

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said the authorities are reviewing the evidence and declined to comment further.

India has blamed the three-day siege on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group based in Pakistan, where authorities have arrested at least two men accused of planning the attacks and launched a nationwide crackdown on a charity believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India has called on Pakistan to hand over the suspects and dismantle the terror network they say is based across the border. Pakistani leaders say they will try any suspects in the attacks in their own courts.

In the wake of the attacks, tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have been high, with Pakistan redeploying troops toward India and away from the Afghan border, where authorities are battling militants.

Critics say the troop movement will hurt the Pakistani army's attempts to gain control of the lawless tribal region, where on Monday police found three bullet-riddled bodies they say were victims of the Taliban. The victims, found along a road some 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, were a Pakistani construction contractor and two Afghan men the Taliban accused of spying for the United States, said police official Akhtar Salam.

India has worked for weeks to marshal global pressure on Pakistan, and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the detailed evidence handed over to Islamabad would also be shared with the international community.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said, however, "we will not take pressure from anyone."

"We are a sovereign state, and we will act according to our law," Malik said. "Nobody can put pressure on us."

India and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other since they gained independence in 1947, but Indian leaders have made clear they do not want to fight a fourth. India has been careful not to blame the attacks on the Pakistani government, and Monday's statement again accused "elements in Pakistan," an apparent reference to militant groups.

Pakistan's leaders have veered back and forth from confrontational statements to conciliatory ones and on Sunday Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the country wanted "good relations with its neighbors."

Much of India's evidence against the militants comes from interrogations of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only gunman to survive the attacks. He has reportedly told authorities he and nine others were Pakistani, he was trained in Pakistan, and his handlers are still there.

Pakistan has said it has no record of Kasab as a Pakistani citizen. Malik said Monday authorities were still examining his claim.

The Mumbai attacks began Nov. 26 and lasted for nearly three days. The 10 gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital, including two five-star hotels, the main train station, popular restaurants and a Jewish center.

The U.S. has sent a string of envoys to the region in recent weeks to help defuse tensions. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher arrived in Islamabad on Monday to meet with top Pakistani government officials, the American Embassy in the Pakistani capital confirmed.
 

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