ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Pakistan on Thursday promised the United States to find and prosecute any Pakistani linked to the terrorist attacks that killed 170 people in the Indian metropolis of Mumbai.
President Asif Ali Zardari told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that “Pakistan will not only assist in investigation of the Mumbai incidents but also take action against any Pakistani element found involved in it.”
Miss Rice arrived from India, which Thursday put airports in three major cities - New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai - on high alert amid warnings of possible new terrorist strikes.
Miss Rice, in a daylong visit to Pakistan, also met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
“We talked at some length about the attack on Mumbai and the importance of Pakistan taking its responsibility to deal with those who may use Pakistani territory” to plan attacks, she said.
Miss Rice said she “found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and that understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism wherever it is found.”
Indian and U.S. officials have linked the Mumbai attacks to a militant Islamic group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, that has been supported in the past by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. According to Indian officials, the sole Mumbai gunman captured alive admitted to being a Pakistani and member of Lashkar.
Two Indian government officials told the Associated Press that the group’s operations chief, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and Yusuf Muzammil, chief of operations in the disputed territory of Kashmir, planned the Mumbai massacre.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means “army of the pure,” is headed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who has been jailed in Pakistan in the past after attacks in India blamed on his group. In 2002, then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf outlawed the organization but did not ban a charitable foundation also headed by Mr. Saeed, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which some investigators think is Lashkar-e-Taiba by another name.
A spokesman for Jamaat-ud-Dawa said the group is not linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and was not behind the Mumbai killings.
“Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a humanitarian organization operating under the law and constitution of Pakistan,” Abdullah Muntazir told The Washington Times by phone from Muridke in Punjab province. “Lashkar and Dawa are separate organizations.”
Mr. Muntazir added that “Hafiz Saeed is not an ordinary man. Millions in Pakistan support him. Government cannot afford handing him over to any foreign country. This is out of question.”
Indian officials have demanded that Pakistan hand over Mr. Saeed, and said they have given Islamabad a list of 20 wanted men thought to be in Pakistan.
Rehman Malik, an adviser to the Pakistani government on interior affairs, told reporters in Islamabad that India has asked for the extradition of only three people - Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and Maulana Masood Azhar.
“Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon are not in Pakistan, while we have asked India to provide more documentary proofs about Masood Azhar,” he said.
Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon are both accused in connection with 1993 bombings in Mumbai that killed more than 250 people.
Masood Azhar is the leader of Jaish-e-Muhammad (Muhammad’s Army), was freed by India in 1999 in return for hostages from a hijacked plane.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.