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Mumbai Investigation Focuses on Possible Indian Collaborators
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In the days after the Mumbai siege, India demanded that Pakistan crack down on the militant groups it suspected of planning the attacks, arrest its leaders and extradite them for trial in India. Pakistan has refused to hand them over, but several have been rounded up in raids. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani confirmed Wednesday the arrest of two prominent militant leaders.
Meanwhile, Rakesh Maria, Mumbai's chief police investigator, said there was further evidence of links between the Pakistan-based Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar. Pakistan has said it is investigating the charity.
Maria said the head of the charity, Hafiz Sayeed, "gave a motivational speech to the 10 gunmen who attacked Mumbai at the end of their training." Maria said the evidence was gleaned from Azam Amir Kasab, the only surviving gunman. Indian police announced Wednesday that Kasab would be charged with 12 offenses, including "murder, criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state."
The United States has been assisting in India's investigation, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
"Where we've been asked, we are working with the Indians to provide them intelligence" to prevent such attacks, he said at a Pentagon news conference.
"It shouldn't be lost on anyone how a handful of well-trained terrorists, using fairly unsophisticated tools in a highly sophisticated manner, held at bay an entire city and nearly brought to a boil interstate tensions between two nuclear powers," he said.
Mullen said he had discussed with Pakistan's leadership the troubling role of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency. "There's a rich history here of ISI fomenting challenges, particularly in Kashmir. And everybody is aware of that. We're aware of that, the Indians are aware of that, the Pakistanis are aware of that, as is the international community writ large," he said.
U.S. military officials have said they have no evidence that the ISI was directly involved in the Mumbai attacks, although Indian officials have suggested a link. Pakistan has denied that anyone in its government was involved.
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson in Washington contributed to this report.
