India pointed the finger of blame at Pakistan on Friday, saying preliminary investigations into the bloody attacks on its commercial capital showed that “some elements” inside the rival nation were responsible.
The coordinated series of attacks, which began on Wednesday night, targeted 10 sites across Mumbai, including an iconic hotel and a landmark train station.
Local media speculation quickly settled on Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, a Pakistan rebel group that has fought troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir, but newspapers and TV channels have offered little evidence for the suspicion.
EVIDENCE
Indian Federal Home Minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani, while R. R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, said: “It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan.”
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed “external forces” for the violence — a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistani militants, whom Indian authorities often blame for attacks.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said “some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks,” but he added that “proof cannot be disclosed at this time.”
Mukherjee’s carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not Pakistan itself.
None of the officials provided further details.
A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
On Thursday a man identifying himself as spokesman for the Lashkar rebel group denied any role in the attacks in a phone interview with the local Hindi news channel, in Indian Kashmir’s main city Srinagar over telephone.
Lashkar has long been seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.
Any clear proof of Pakistani involvement would seriously jeopardize fragile peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan has vigorously denied all accusations that it was tied to the attacks.
“I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents,” Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said.
FBI
US officials on Friday were working out details with Indian diplomats for the departure of a team of FBI agents to join the investigation.
Analysts debated the level of Pakistan’s possible involvement.
The terror group “itself is probably drawing from, in large numbers, Indian operatives, but it probably enjoys a fairly healthy support of Pakistan,” said Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the RAND Corp. “The big picture is that there’s probably going to be more of this, not less of this, to come.”
Meanwhile, the British government was investigating whether some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to Pakistan or Kashmir, a British security official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.
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