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Interpol says India has not shared evidence on Mumbai attacks

Other News Materials 23 December 2008 16:31 (UTC +04:00)

Interpol Chief Ronald Noble on Tuesday said the Indian government has not asked the global police organization to help investigate the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, reported dpa.

"To date no information has been shared, we are hopeful it will happen very quickly," Noble said in Islamabad, where he met with Pakistani security officials to review counter-terrorism plans.

Noble said India had the sovereign right to decide when to share information with other countries, but it is unacceptable for information to leaked to the media and, "if accurate," not updated in the international police database.

India has not authorized its police to enter data related to the Mumbai attacks in the Interpol database, he added.

Noble also doubted the details of the incident published in the Indian press.

"How can we have confidence about what's reported in the newspapers when a newspaper says that information has been shared with the Interpol while our team was deployed in Mumbai, when no information has been shared," he said.

Indian authorities blame Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization of plotting the Mumbai carnage, and claim the lone surviving attacker, Ajmal Amir Qasab, is a Pakistani national.

Islamabad has repeatedly said that if New Delhi had evidence proving involvement of any Pakistani in the Mumbai massacre, it should be forwarded to the Islamic republic. No information has been provided, official or unofficially, so far, it maintains.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry on Monday handed over a letter purportedly written by Qasab to a Pakistani envoy in Delhi.

A ministry statement said the alleged terrorist wrote that "he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan." Qasab also sought a meeting with the Pakistan High Commission.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said "the contents of the letter are being examined."

Tensions between the old rivals have escalated in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks that killed more than 170 people November 26-29.

Both nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have also raised the alertness level of their armed forces, who have fought three wars since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.

The Interpol chief said Pakistan has also suffered from terrorism and was "in need of international support and not international condemnation."

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