Pakistan acknowledged that it had received a long-awaited dossier of India's evidence on the Mumbai attacks. From AFP:
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 announced.
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 extradite a list of terror suspects.
The information is also being shared with other governments. More on the contents:
It also details the militants' communications with "elements" in Pakistan during the attack, recovered weapons and other equipment, retrieved global positioning system data and satellite phones.
More importantly, perhaps, are these revelations in The Wall Street Journal, showing that Pakistan's own investigation of the attacks have established links between the gunmen and its intelligence services:
At least one top leader of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or "Army of the Pure," captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the attack as India and the U.S. have alleged, according to a senior Pakistani security official.
The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks, which left 171 dead in India, originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects. That raises difficult and potentially destabilizing issues for the country's new civilian government, its military and the spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence -- which is conducting interrogations of militants it once cultivated as partners.
Pakistani security officials say a top Lashkar commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation, according to the security official, who declined to be identified discussing the investigation. "He is singing," the security official said of Mr. Shah.
More on India's evidence, from UPI:
During the weekend, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the dossier was "unanswerable," the British newspaper reported. "No one in his right mind can give answer to this evidence."
Chidambaram is expected to brief the White House about the contents of the report in Washington. The Times said the FBI may be asked to act on India's behalf to investigate matters related to the dossier in Pakistan.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden will visit Pakistan Jan. 9 and meet with Zardari, 11 days before taking office with Barack Obama’s new administration, Pakistan’s GEO TV channel reported, citing officials it didn’t identify. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the mission doesn’t discuss officials’ travel plans.
The U.S. has “a duty to pursue all avenues to get to the bottom” of the Mumbai plot, particularly as American citizens were among those killed in the attack, U.S. Ambassador to India David Mulford told reporters in New Delhi. Mulford said the U.S. government supports India’s demand for prosecution of the plotters and “will pursue this matter to its conclusion.”
