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NEW DELHI: India on Monday handed to Pakistan what it
said was evidence linking the country to the Islamic militants who
attacked Mumbai in November, India’s foreign minister said.
The government also said it was
launching a major diplomatic offensive to maintain international
pressure on Islamabad, which has so far rejected New Delhi’s
demands to hand over a list of terror suspects.
“We have today handed over to
Pakistan evidence of the links with elements in Pakistan of the
terrorists who attacked Mumbai on 26th November, 2008,” Pranab
Mukherjee told reporters.
“What happened in Mumbai was an
unpardonable crime. As far as the Government of Pakistan is
concerned, we ask only that it implement the bilateral commitments
that it has made at the highest levels to India, and practices her
international obligations. These are clear,” he added.
India’s foreign secretary,
Shivshankar Menon, handed over the evidence to Pakistan’s high
commissioner in New Delhi.
The material includes details of
interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman—also known as Mohammed
Ajmal Kasab—who was the lone surviving gunman and who India says
is a Pakistani national.
It also details the militants’
communications with “elements” in Pakistan during the attack,
recovered weapons and other equipment and data retrieved from
recovered global positioning system data and satellite phones.
“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,” Mukherjee said.
New Delhi has also shared the
evidence with foreign ministers around the world, will brief foreign
ambassadors in New Delhi and Indian ambassadors in other countries
will do the same, the minister said.
The November 26 to 29 assault in
India’s financial capital left 172 dead, including nine attackers.
Indian officials say the banned
Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba trained and equipped
the 10 militants who stormed Mumbai.
Pakistan’s government has so
far said that New Delhi has provided no proof of a Pakistani link to
the strikes.
But Indian Home Minister
Palaniappan Chidambaram said over the weekend that the proof
against Pakistan was “overwhelming” and “unanswerable”
and indicated that the attackers were backed by the Pakistani
authorities.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari,
however, has described the attackers as “stateless” actors.
Chidambaram is expected to travel
to Washington this week to present the evidence to the United
States.
As tensions simmer between the
nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, Richard Boucher, the top US
diplomat for South Asia, arrived in Pakistan for talks on ties
between the two countries.
Ahead of Boucher’s visit,
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday that
Islamabad would not hand over any Pakistani to India, noting the
two sides did not have an extradition treaty.
“But the problem is still
there. After all an incident has taken place and we have to get to
the bottom of it,” Qureshi said.
--AFP
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