New Delhi, Jan 5 (Inditop) India Monday handed over to Pakistan the evidence linking Pakistan-based militants to the Mumbai carnage and ratcheted up international pressure on Islamabad to eliminate terror infrastructure.
“We have today given evidence to Pakistan of links between elements in Pakistan and the terrorists who attacked Mumbai,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here Monday morning.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon handed over to Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik the material linking the Nov 26 Mumbai attack to elements in Pakistan.
The evidence includes material from the interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani national who is in police custody and was the only terrorist to be captured alive in Mumbai; and details of the terrorists’ communication links with elements in Pakistan during the Mumbai attack.
The evidence shared also included recovered weapons and equipment and other articles and data retrieved from recovered GPS and satellite phones of the Mumbai attackers.
“It is our expectation that the government of Pakistan will promptly undertake further investigations in Pakistan and share the results with us so as to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Mukherjee said.
“We would also hope that Pakistan will implement her bilateral, multilateral and international obligations to prevent terrorism in any manner from territory under her control,” he stressed.
Intensifying international pressure on Pakistan, Mukherjee underlined that he has written to his counterparts across the world, sharing evidence of the complicity of elements in Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks.
The external affairs ministry will also be briefing all resident heads of mission about the links between the Mumbai mayhem and Pakistan-based elements in the next twenty four hours, Mukherjee said.
Indian ambassadors around the world will also brief the respective governments on the same, he added.
“What happened in Mumbai was an unpardonable act. The world will have to unite to eliminate the threat of terrorism,” Mukherjee stressed, while urging Pakistan to honour its anti-terror pledge of not allowing its territory to be used as a launching pad for terror attacks against India.
This is the first tangible move by India to counter Pakistan’s propaganda denying any links with the Mumbai carnage. Pakistani leaders have blamed “non-state actors” for the Mumbai attacks.
India has also prepared a dossier of evidence about involvement of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which will be handed over to the US by Home Minister P Chidambaram when he goes to Washington later in the week.
