Mumbai evidence handed to Pakistan

Asserts government is involved

By Sam Dolnick ASSOCIATED PRESS | Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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NEW DELHI | India on Monday handed Pakistan detailed evidence on the Mumbai attacks - which included information on interrogations, weapons and data gleaned from satellite phones - that officials said proved Pakistani "elements" were behind the deadly siege.

Indian authorities said the evidence shows that Pakistan-based militants plotted and executed the attacks, but a top diplomat said the gunmen also may have had ties to Pakistani authorities.

"Its hard to believe that something of this scale ... could occur without anybody, anywhere in the establishment knowing that this was happening," India Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

Mr. Menon dismissed Pakistan's repeated claims that the attacks were carried out by "non-state actors," saying, "Even the so-called non-state actors function within a state, are citizens of a state. ... We don't think there's such a thing as non-state actors."

Mr. Menon also called for Pakistan to extradite the suspects so they could be brought "to Indian justice." Pakistan has said any trials will be held in its own courts.

India has blamed the November attacks that killed more than 170 people on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group, but Islamabad has resisted the claims and requested evidence showing that the attacks were launched from across the border.

Indian officials said the dossier handed to Pakistan - as well as to officials from the countries whose citizens were killed - will make their case, and it is now up to Pakistan to act.

"The material, as you know, is linked to elements in Pakistan," Mr. Menon said.

"We are no longer interested in words," he added. "We want actual action against the perpetrators."

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

Pakistan has arrested at least two Lashkar leaders accused of planning the attacks and launched a nationwide crackdown on a charity believed to be a front for the militant group.

Mr. Menon dismissed those moves as insufficient, saying the charity was still operating and that Pakistan authorities have not informed India about the status of the two men they said were arrested.

In Islamabad on Monday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher met with Pakistani leaders and called for India and Pakistan to work together in the investigation.

"It's clear ... that the attackers had links that lead to Pakistani soil," he said.

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 that he and nine other attackers were Pakistani, he was trained in Pakistan and his handlers are still there.

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.

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