India Provides Proof of Mumbai Attacks to Pakistan

Jan. 5, 2008 — -- For the first time since the Mumbai attacks in November, India provided Pakistan today with official evidence that "elements in Pakistan" were behind the assaults, increasing the pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on terrorists operating within its borders.

After the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan arrested a handful of members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group that India and the United States blamed for the attacks that killed 170 people but has said it can't do more until India provides evidence.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said today that India expected results "as soon as possible" and that it "beggars the imagination" that nobody in the Pakistani establishment knew about preparations for the attacks.

"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 that this was happening," Menon told reporters in New Delhi.

The dossier of evidence, which was presented in both Islamabad and New Delhi, included transcripts and other materials from the interrogation of Ajmal Qasab, the sole surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks, who has written to the Pakistani high commission in Delhi admitting he was Pakistani. It also included evidence of phone calls made by the attackers to Pakistan and data retrieved from the attackers' GPS and satellite phones, showing they'd sailed from Karachi to Mumbai, according to the Indian external affairs ministry.

The dossier was also presented to 20 foreign countries, Menon said, in an attempt to pressure Pakistan to act.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement today that it would "evaluate the information provided by India so far" but also said it was carrying out its own investigation.

That investigation has included a reported admission by Zarar Shah, a senior member of Lashkar-e-Taiba who was arrested last month, that the group had organized the attacks.