Pakistan team to probe attacks

Pakistan said on Thursday it has detained or kept under surveillance over 100 people linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamat-ud-Dawah in connection with the Mumbai attacks, and constituted a three-man team of its Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the incident.

Pakistan said it needed more information from India to proceed with its investigation, including access to the site of the terror attacks, and reiterated its offer of a joint probe.

The FIA team will comprise Additional Director-General Javed Iqbal, the head of the Special Investigation Group of the FIA’s anti-terror unit Khalid Qureshi and Liaquat Ali Khan, a director in the agency, reports said.

At a press conference, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik listed the actions taken by the government since the Mumbai attacks: shut down 20 offices of the JuD, 87 schools linked to it, two libraries, seven seminaries, eight other “small organisations” about which he did not give any more details, and seven websites.

Also shut down are 13 disaster relief camps run by the JuD. But Mr. Malik did not specify if the JuD’s Muridke headquarters had been sealed. He also left the number of individuals detained rather unclear.

At first, Mr. Malik said 124 people had been detained, including Hafiz Mohammed Saaed, the head of the JuD, Mufti Abdulrehman, Colonel (retired) Nazir Ahmed, Amir Hamza, and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

Asked about Zarar Shah, an LeT operative who is said to have played a key role in the attacks, Mr. Malik, without answering the question, said 71 people had been detained, and 125 kept under surveillance “since the last six months.”

Pakistan was “fully committed” to helping India with the investigations into the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Malik said.

He said in order to convert the “information” given by India into “evidence” that could be presented in a court of law, including in a Pakistani court, “counterparts” in India need to give the FIA team access to the Mumbai sites where the attacks took place.

Mr. Rehman parried a question on whether the action that Pakistan was taking meant that the government now agreed with the Indian allegation that LeT was involved in the Mumbai attacks.

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, dubbed as “unfortunate” recent remarks by Home Minister P. Chidambaram that India could sever trade, transport and tourist links with Pakistan.