ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Pakistan said yesterday that it was reviewing evidence handed over by Indian authorities on the deadly Mumbai attacks.
“The Indian foreign secretary has handed over some information material regarding terrorist attacks in Mumbai to Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi this (Monday) morning,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Sadiq told reporters.
He said the material has been received in Pakistan “and is being examined by the concerned authorities”. The spokesman did not give any time frame for a reply to the Indian authorities. “It is our duty, my duty, to examine the dossier carefully, understand it and be truthful to myself, to my country and the neighborhood,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi told Reuters in Islamabad.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani again said he would take action if “credible evidence” was provided. The material includes details of the interrogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman — also known as Mohammed Ajmal Qasab — who was the lone surviving gunman and who India says is a Pakistani national.
It also details the militants’ communications with “elements” in Pakistan during the attack, recovered weapons and other equipment, retrieved global positioning system data and satellite phones.
In New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters India has given Pakistan evidence linking to “elements in Pakistan” the militants who carried out the Nov. 26-29 attacks.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon handed over the evidence to Pakistani envoy Shahid Malik yesterday morning. The material was handed over to Islamabad when US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher met Pakistani officials. Sources said he held a detailed meeting with Qureshi and also discussed the Indian demand of handing over the “masterminds of the attacks”.
Menon said it “beggars the imagination” that no Pakistani officials knew about preparations for the assault on India’s financial hub.
“It’s hard to believe that something of this scale, that took so long in the preparation and of this nature, which amounts really to a commando attack, could occur without anybody, anywhere in the establishment knowing,” Menon told reporters in New Delhi.
— With input from Nilofar Suhrawardy
