Pakistan’s government has begun rallying support at home and abroad as tension flared with old rival India after the bloody militant assault on the Indian city of Mumbai.
India said yesterday that it had proof of a Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people, raising the prospect not only of a breakdown of peace efforts between the nuclear-armed nations but of confrontation across their border.
Pakistan condemned the assault as a “barbaric act of terrorism” and denied any involvement by state agencies.
It has vowed to cooperate in fighting terrorism but backtracked on a decision to send the chief of its spy agency to India to help with the probe — a move likely to revive questions about who is in charge of the shadowy organization.
Pakistan has also said it would move troops from its western border with Afghanistan, where security forces are battling al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters as part of the US-led campaign against militancy, to the Indian border if tension escalated.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoned opposition politicians late on Saturday to brief them on the crisis.
“These political leaders assured the prime minister of their full support and cooperation at this critical juncture,” Gilani’s office said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi spoke by telephone to the foreign ministers of China and the United Arab Emirates as well as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and told them that Pakistan had promised all help to India.
The attacks came after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated last year, had made bold moves to improve ties with India.
Zardari, battling Islamic radicals at home, told Indian television on Saturday that he would cooperate in the investigation and act decisively if any Pakistani link was found.
“If any evidence comes of any individual or group in any part of my country, I shall take the swiftest of action in the light of evidence and in front of the world,” he told CNN-IBN.
The Mumbai assault bore the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was blamed for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
Lashkar-e-Taiba and a Kashmiri militant leader denied any role. Instead, the little-known Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
A senior Pakistani security official denied the involvement of any Pakistani institution in the Mumbai attack and said the war on terror would not be a priority if tension escalated.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani prime minister canceled a trip to Hong Kong to concentrate on addressing growing tensions with India after the Mumbai terror attacks, officials said.
Gilani was due to attend the Clinton Global Initiative summit tomorrow and Wednesday but an official from his office said he would instead deal with Indian allegations that terrorists who killed 195 people in its financial hub came from Pakistan.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of