ISLAMABAD: The detention of the founder of the militant group India has blamed for November’s attacks in Mumbai and five others has been extended for 60 days by Pakistani authorities, a government spokesman said yesterday.

However, Pakistan reiterated it will not hand over any Pakistani suspects to India for interrogation.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told a gathering in Sindh yesterday, “We have offered full cooperation to India in its efforts to trace culprits of Mumbai attacks and have decided to hold a comprehensive examination of evidence which the Indian government has provided us but I want to reassure the nation that we will not hand over any of over citizen to India.”

Founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group Hafiz Saeed was put under house arrest in Lahore in early December after a UN Security Council committee added him and a charity he heads to a list of people and organizations linked to Al- Qaeda or the Taleban.

Saeed founded LeT in 1990 and for years it battled Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2002.

He is also head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which the United Nations said last month was a front for the LeT.

Pervaiz Rasheed, a spokesman for the provincial government in Punjab, said Saeed and five senior charity members had their house arrest extended for 60 days. Fifty-five activists had been put on a watch list.

“We extended it because we have nothing against them to produce in court. We’re acting on the UN resolution. After 60 days, we’ll review it,” Rasheed said.

Ties between Pakistan and India deteriorated sharply after coordinated attacks by 10 gunmen on Mumbai in late November that killed over 180 people.

Pakistan has denied involvement by state agencies and has said it is investigating Pakistani links to the attack.

India has demanded Pakistan dismantle the “infrastructure of terrorism” and has repeatedly said “all options were open” in responding. That has raised fears of Indian military strikes on militant targets in Pakistan, which could spark war.

Rasheed said the Punjab government had sealed about 70 Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices and taken over 30 of its schools and dispensaries.

In the days after the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan captured two of the suspected planners, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, in a crackdown against the LeT in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

The Wall Street Journal said last month Shah had confessed to his involvement in the attack. The government has said its investigation was still going on although it confirmed last week the lone surviving gunman was Pakistani.