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.
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