Pakistan was still awaiting “concrete proof” yesterday that a group based there carried out the devastating Mumbai attacks, as India said evidence was mounting and warned its anger had not cooled.
As twin bomb blasts killed 27 people in Pakistan’s northwest, President Asif Ali Zardari stressed the country was also a victim of terror and was carrying out its own investigation into the assault on India’s financial center.
“Pakistan is currently doing its own internal investigation and is waiting for concrete proof to be handed over to us,” Zardari told reporters in Istanbul, where he discussed ways to combat extremism with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
“Our position is that we have always been and still are the victims of terrorism,” he said.
Last week’s 60-hour Mumbai siege by 10 Islamic militants has badly hit relations between India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors who have fought three wars since independence from the UK.
The attack by gunmen against multiple targets in Mumbai, including the landmark Taj Mahal hotel, killed 171 people including 26 foreigners. Nine militants were killed, while one was captured alive.
New Delhi has increasingly pointed the finger at Islamabad over the violence, sometimes referred to it as “India’s 9/11,” which has enraged public opinion and threatened a slow-moving peace process.
On Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India has been angered “as never before” by the attacks as his new home minister hinted at growing evidence of Pakistani involvement.
“We have told the world that the people of India have felt a sense of hurt and anger as never before due to the Mumbai terror strikes,” Singh said. “It is the obligation of all concerned that perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to book.”
India says all 10 gunmen involved in the assault came from Pakistan, and has handed Islamabad a list of 20 terror suspects, with demands for their arrest and extradition.
Suspicion has focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group that has fought Indian control of divided Kashmir.
Lashkar was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, which pushed the two nations to the brink of war.
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