Morning:
13°c
India demand to Pakistan: hand over the 20 terrorists
Terry Kirby02.12.08
India cranked up the tension with Pakistan today by demanding that it hand over suspected terrorists living in the country.
The Indian foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said the names of about 20 people - including India's most wanted man - were given to Shahid Malik, Pakistan's high commissioner to Delhi, during a meeting last night.
Since the Mumbai attacks last week Indian officials have maintained that the terrorists who mounted a seaborne assault on the city came from their neighbour and fellow nuclear power.
The demand for Pakistan to hand over suspects was first made after the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by Kashmiri militants which led to a prolonged military stand-off between the two countries.
The list is said to include Dawood Ibrahim. He is the former head of a Mumbai crime syndicate known as the D-Company and is said to have strong links to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which India blames for the attacks. Pakistan's reaction to the demand was non-committal. "We have to look at it formally once we get it and we will frame a response," said the information minister, Sherry Rehman.
Ibrahim, also named by the CIA as one of the world's most wanted men, is a multi-millionaire who is said to have worked closely with al Qaeda and is the alleged mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai bombings. He is thought to be living in Karachi, although the Islamabad government has repeatedly denied this.
According to some reports, his syndicate may have helped the militants because of its extensive knowledge of the city.
The gunman are believed to have had ammunition and explosives stored at more than one location before their arrival. Although Ibrahim is in exile, the syndicate in Mumbai is said to be run by some of his family and associates. Others on the list include Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founder of Lashhar, and Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of another militant group, the Jaish-e-Mohammed who was freed in 1999 after an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked by terrorists.
Indian police say that the only terrorist to be captured alive among the group, named as Mohammed Amir Kasab, has admitted being part of Lashkar and claimed that all came from Pakistan's tribal areas. Pakistan has repeatedly denied any official connection with the militants, claiming they were "non-state actors".
Locals in the village of Faridkot, said to have been the home of Kasab, are reported to have no knowledge of any such person.
The Times of India reported today that Kasab has told interrogators that the attack, in which 180 people died, was planned for between 7 and 8pm local time, with the intention of arriving at Victoria Terminus station when it would be at its busiest, so that more people would be killed.
The intention was also to take hostages at the station and return with them to Karachi by hijacking a boat. In the event, they arrived at 8.45, but did not reach the station for another hour.
US officials have been quoted as saying that India was warned twice about potential attacks in the previous month.
