India asks Pakistan to hand over terrorist suspects
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
MUMBAI, Dec 2 (AFP): India demanded Tuesday that Pakistan hand over several terrorist suspects as the government faced mounting criticism over intelligence failures in the Mumbai attacks that left 188 dead.
But Pakistan's prime minister said his government wanted proof of India's allegation that all the attackers were Pakistanis, as tensions rose between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the siege of India's financial capital.
CNN and another US network reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea, as happened in last week's dramatic assault.
One US intelligence official had even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
It said Indian intelligence officials intercepted a phone call on November 18 to an address in Pakistan used by the head of the militant Lashkar-e-Taiba, revealing a possible attack from the sea.
About 10 gunmen landed in rubber dinghies in Mumbai Wednesday and wreaked havoc with automatic weapons and hand grenades, in an assault that killed 188 and injured more than 300. The dead included 22 foreign nationals.
India's security and intelligence agencies have come under intense criticism over their handling of the incident, including allegations that not enough was done to prevent such an attack.
Pakistan formally banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir and was blamed for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament which almost led the two nations to war, in 2002.
But Indian officials allege that Pakistan has not fully enforced that ban, allowing the group to continue operating, and India says all the dead gunmen and the lone man arrested in the attack were all from Pakistan.
India formally demanded "the arrest and hand-over of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and are fugitives of Indian law," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. "We will await the response of Pakistan."
The names come from a list of suspects originally put together by India after the 2001 parliament attack. It includes Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
But Pakistan's prime minister said his government wanted proof of India's allegation that all the attackers were Pakistanis, as tensions rose between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the siege of India's financial capital.
CNN and another US network reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea, as happened in last week's dramatic assault.
One US intelligence official had even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
It said Indian intelligence officials intercepted a phone call on November 18 to an address in Pakistan used by the head of the militant Lashkar-e-Taiba, revealing a possible attack from the sea.
About 10 gunmen landed in rubber dinghies in Mumbai Wednesday and wreaked havoc with automatic weapons and hand grenades, in an assault that killed 188 and injured more than 300. The dead included 22 foreign nationals.
India's security and intelligence agencies have come under intense criticism over their handling of the incident, including allegations that not enough was done to prevent such an attack.
Pakistan formally banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir and was blamed for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament which almost led the two nations to war, in 2002.
But Indian officials allege that Pakistan has not fully enforced that ban, allowing the group to continue operating, and India says all the dead gunmen and the lone man arrested in the attack were all from Pakistan.
India formally demanded "the arrest and hand-over of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and are fugitives of Indian law," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. "We will await the response of Pakistan."
The names come from a list of suspects originally put together by India after the 2001 parliament attack. It includes Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.