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We warned India of terror attack from the sea, says US
2 Dec 2008
The United States warned India before last week's attacks in Mumbai that terrorists were believed to be plotting a mostly seaborne assault on the city, a White House official said today.
According to US media reports, the unnamed official would not elaborate on the timing or details of the warning to Indian counterparts, beyond confirming earlier suggestions that America had passed on the information.
The revelation will inflame the internal row in India over widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures before and after the attacks last week, which have led to resignations among political figures. Indian officials have confirmed that some warnings were passed to internal security agencies in the month before the attack, but it is not clear whether these were the ones originating from the US.
The rows came as India cranked up the tension with Pakistan 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 attacks last week Indian officials have maintained that the terrorists 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 with its extensive knowledge of the city. The gunman are believed to have had ammunition and explosives stored at more than one location. 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 Lashkar, and Maulana Masood Azhar, head of another militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, who was freed in 1999 after an Indian Airlines hijack.
Indian police say the only terrorist to be captured alive among the group that attacked Mumbai last week, 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. 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,when Victoria Terminus station would be at its busiest, so that more people would be killed. The intention was also to take hostages 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.
