India fingers Pakistan agencies

2009-01-06 11:33

Parul Gupta

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the Mumbai attacks had the support of "some official agencies" in Pakistan, in his strongest accusation yet against the neighbouring country.

The premier also accused Islamabad of using terrorism as an "instrument of state policy" and said Pakistan had in the past also "encouraged and given sanctuary" to militants hostile to India.

"There is enough evidence to show that given the sophistication and military precision of the Mumbai attacks, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," Singh told a conference in New Delhi.

Singh said the November 26-29 attacks were "clearly carried out" by the banned Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

"Unfortunately, we cannot choose our neighbours, and some countries like Pakistan have in the past encouraged and given sanctuary to terrorists and other forces who are antagonistic to India."

Speaking at a conference of chief ministers of Indian states on internal security, the prime minister also said that cross-border infiltrations from Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region had not stopped.

"The governments in some of our neighbouring countries are very fragile in nature. The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion," Singh said.

The prime minister said the Mumbai attacks, which killed 172 people including nine gunmen, were designed to strike India's economic and security interests.

Increased vigilance

Westerners were particularly targeted during the attacks to "convey an impression that India was unsafe as a destination for the West and Western investments", Singh told the chief ministers.

Singh called for increased vigilance along sea routes, greater intelligence sharing and strengthened security to prevent further attacks.

"There is need to review the effectiveness of our set-up for the collection of technical signalling and human intelligence," the premier said.

Singh's comments came a day after New Delhi said that it had handed over evidence linking "elements in Pakistan" to the Mumbai attackers.

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 number of terrorist suspects.

Islamabad confirmed that it had received the dossier, and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani again said he would take action if "credible evidence" was provided.

The material includes details of the interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman - also known as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab - who was the lone surviving gunman and who India says is a Pakistani national.

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.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had previously said that the gunmen who stormed India's financial capital were "non-state" actors.

- AFP