Man Arrested in Mumbai Attacks Confesses, Pakistani Official Says

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 -- A fighter arrested in Pakistan has confessed to involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is giving investigators details of the plot, a senior Pakistani government official said Wednesday.

The revelation could add to pressure on Pakistan to either bring Zarar Shah and other suspects to trial or extradite them to India.

Shah "has made some statement that he was involved," the government official said, without providing specific details. "I can tell you that he is singing."

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Shah's confession was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

A senior intelligence officer said Shah and another suspect, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were cooperating with investigators but cautioned that authorities had not reached a definite conclusion as to their involvement.

He, too, demanded anonymity. Indian officials were not available for comment.

Gunmen targeted 10 sites, including two five-star hotels and a Jewish center, during the three-day siege in India's financial capital, killing more than 170 people.

India and the United States say the men who planned and carried out the attacks were Pakistani and are demanding that Islamabad take action against those responsible.

The Pakistani government official also told the Associated Press that India has shared some evidence of its suspicions but that it was "very, very little." Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, and other top officials have said India has yet to provide any evidence.

The intelligence officer also said the country had received "information" on the attacks from other, unspecified, nations.

India "gave us a list of numbers and phone calls, most of them useless," the official said.

Shah and Lakhvi have been identified as members of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a banned Islamist group accused by India of carrying out the Mumbai attacks and others on its soil. They were taken into custody soon after the attacks.

India has said both were involved in the planning of the siege, but it has given few details of their role and made no evidence public.

Accusations of Lashkar-i-Taiba's involvement have put Pakistan in a difficult position because the group is widely thought to have been created by Pakistani intelligence agencies to battle Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries.