/ 2 December 2008

Pressure on India, Pakistan to prevent Mumbai fallout

India demanded Pakistan hand over its most-wanted man as a sign of faith as diplomatic efforts to prevent the nuclear-armed rivals from heading toward a confrontation over the Mumbai attacks intensified on Tuesday.

The Times of India and television channels reported New Delhi renewed a demand Pakistan hand over 20 militants wanted in India, including Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai underworld don blamed for bomb blasts in the city in 1993 that killed 260 people.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa was in New Delhi on a scheduled visit while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive on Wednesday following the militant attacks that killed 183 people in India’s financial capital.

India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan and issued a note of protest to its old enemy on Monday demanding decisive action.

”It was conveyed to the Pakistan high commissioner that Pakistan’s actions needed to match the sentiments expressed by its leadership that it wishes to have a qualitatively new relationship with India,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

Ibrahim, India’s most wanted man, is reported to be living in Pakistan. He is wanted for the 1993 attacks in Mumbai but reports have said his henchmen in the city could have also provided some support in the latest attacks.

Also on the list was Maulana Masood Azhar, a militant cleric who was arrested in India and then freed in 1999 in exchange for the freedom of passengers on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked and flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Britain’s top military officer warned the tensions between the nuclear-armed adversaries could set back Pakistan’s offensive against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants along the Afghan border.

Indian investigators have said the Mumbai attackers had months of commando training in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, blamed for a 2001 attack on India’s parliament. That event nearly set off the fourth war between the two countries since Pakistan was carved from India in 1947.

The attacks have prompted the resignation of India’s Interior Minister and offers to step down from other top politicians from the ruling Congress party coalition.

Facing an election by May, analysts say Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must walk a delicate line not to upset regional stability but act forcefully enough to counter opposition accusations that Congress is weak on security.

Many Indians have expressed anger at apparent intelligence lapses and a slow reaction by security forces to the rampage.

The attacks against Mumbai’s two best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks in the city of 18-million are a major setback for improving ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Rice urges transparency
Rice was due to visit India on Wednesday, underscoring the gravity with which Washington saw the regional implications. She met British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London on Monday.

”I don’t want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect [from Pakistan],” Rice told reporters.

Officials in Islamabad have warned any deterioration of ties would force it to divert troops to the Indian border and away from a United States-led anti-militant campaign on the Afghan frontier.

Britain’s chief of defence staff said in a speech that would have deep consequences.

”If tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate, there’s a risk they and we could be diverted from the real issue: dealing with the terrorist groups who perpetrate such criminal and barbaric acts,” Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup said.

”The nationality of the terrorists does not strike me as the key issue,” he said, but rather cooperation among countries ”to eliminate such terrorism as a force in international affairs”.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called both countries’ foreign ministers on Monday and urged Pakistan to make good on its promise to cooperate in the investigation.

Pakistan has vowed to work with India in investigating the militant assault, but on Monday rejected what it called unsubstantiated allegations of complicity in the attacks. — Reuters