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Pakistan response on Mumbai a positive step, India says

Other News Materials 13 February 2009 11:29 (UTC +04:00)

India has termed the admission by Pakistan that Mumbai's terrorist attacks were partly planned on its soil a "positive development" and promised to share more information regarding the assault, officials said Friday, dpa reported.

The reaction came after Pakistan Thursday handed over its response to India's dossier of evidence linking the November attacks that claimed at least 173 lives to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.

Admitting for the first time that the terrorist attacks were partly planned on its territory, Pakistan said a criminal case had been registered against the suspects, many of whom were already in police custody.

"It remains India's goal to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to book, and to follow this process through to the end," a statement posted on India's Ministry of External Affairs website said.

"We would also expect that the government of Pakistan take credible steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan," it added.

The statement mentioned that Pakistan had sought further information and material relating to the investigation.

"The government of India will now examine the issues raised in the response by Pakistan. After that examination we will share whatever we can with Pakistan," it said.

India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the dossier that India gave to Pakistan on January 5 was "exceptionally, tightly argued document, very cogently argued document" which "nobody could have ignored."

"My initial response is that it is a positive development ... We are happy (that) the response is positive," he said.

Islamabad had initially denied any link to the attacks but later accepted that the lone surviving attacker, who is in Indian custody, is a Pakistani.

Foreign policy analysts said the development could lead to lowering of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated since the attacks and a peace dialogue was halted as New Delhi accused Pakistan of not doing enough to bring the culprits to justice.

But Pakistan's admission was condemned by the LeT and the United Jehad Council (UJC) a conglomerate of Muslim militant groups fighting forces in India-administered Kashmir.

UJC spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain said Islamabad had "surrendered before US and Indian pressure" after US special envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit.

"The Pakistani rulers have fallen prey to the conspiracy of the India-American combine. We strongly condemn it," he said.

LeT spokesman Abdullah Gaznavi said Pakistan's report was meant to appease US and India.

Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said Pakistan had a weak foreign policy and had bowed to pressures.

   "Till yesterday they [Pakistan] were saying that proof is not enough and now they decided overnight and have bowed before the pressures," he said.

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