Attack in Mumbai -2

[Naresh]

<b>Pakistan may allow India to grill suspects</b>

<b>ISLAMABAD – Pakistan may allow the Indian investigators to interrogate the alleged terror suspects wanted by New Delhi for involvement in Mumbai attacks but will not hand them over to the neighbouring nuclear state.</b>

“At the most Pakistan could permit the Indians to grill the people now under detention and being questioned by the Pakistani authorities and blamed by New Delhi for key role in Mumbai carnage. However, there is no likelihood that they will be handed over to India,” said a senior official here on Saturday requesting anonymity.

Currently, alleged activists of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah are being detained in Pakistan and Islamabad is resisting repeated Indian demands backed by influential world powers to hand them over to New Delhi.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded on Saturday that Pakistan hand over suspects in the Mumbai attacks thus raising again the contentious issue that has bedevilled the relations between Islamabad and New Delhi in the wake of Mumbai carnage.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “India does not want war with Pakistan but it must hand over the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.”

The official here said that instead of indulging in blame game, the Indians should provide substantial evidence about Lakhvi or Zarar or anyone else’s involvement in Mumbai attacks to Pakistan and if they did so their investigators could be given access to the wanted persons for probe here on Pakistani soil.

He said the same went for law enforcement or investigative agency from the rest of world. “But the main thing is sufficient evidence proving the involvement of those who are being blamed,” the official said.

According to official, Pakistan itself was carrying out investigations of Mumbai attacks at the moment, and (as it said earlier) was ready for joint probe with India but so far there had been no response by the Indians to Pakistani offer.

Another official here when contacted said that despite hectic efforts by international community to defuse tensions between Pakistan and India, Indian authorities had not resorted to de-escalation and its air, sea and land troops were still on alert and at the same positions that they had taken after the Mumbai attacks.

He said Pakistan was in the process of preparing its policy to match the evolving situation and especially the hard Indian stance. A detailed statement in that regard was likely to be issued by the foreign office in a day or two, he added.

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