Dawn – Mumbai attack was run from Pakistan, India says

New Delhi, 30 June 2012. The leader of the Pakistan-based militant group India blames for the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks may have been present in a Pakistani “control room” where the attacks were coordinated, India said on Friday.

Indian authorities have long viewed Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-i-Taiba, as the mastermind of the attacks in which 166 people were killed.

In April the United States announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

Although Islamabad did not react to the charges on Friday, it previously has rejected Indian allegations of any involvement and said it has acted against the members of Lashkar-i-Taiba accused of mounting the raid.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters that questioning of an Indian man suspected of helping plot the operation had revealed the existence of the control room and suggested it had state support.

“Yes, others were also present and we think one of them was Hafiz Saeed,” Chidambaram said when asked if the group’s founder had been in the room at the time.

Sayeed Zabiuddin Ansari, an alleged key plotter of the attacks, was arrested in New Delhi on June 21 as he arrived from Saudi Arabia.

The police have accused him of training the 10 militants who went on a rampage in India’s financial hub.

Ansari, who also went by the names Abu Hamza, Abu Jindal and Abu Jundal, was present in the “control room”, located in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, Indian newspapers, citing intelligence sources, said on Wednesday.

“His interrogations now prove beyond doubt the existence of such a control room,” Chidambaram said. “Such a control room could not have been established without some kind of a state support.”

The Mumbai attacks served to further strain the already fragile relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours, which have fought three wars in the past 65 years.

http://dawn.com/2012/06/30/mumbai-attack-was-run-from-pakistan-india-says/

The Asian Age – PM gets 26/11 ammo for Zardari

Asian Age Correspondents

New Delhi, 8 April 2012. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s India visit on Sunday may be “private” but it was increasingly assuming “official” hues on Saturday for, under the broad term of “bilateral issues”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to raise with Mr Zardari India’s concern about 26/11 terror attacks mastermind and Laskhar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed roaming freely in Pakistan despite the evidence New Delhi has provided of his involvement.

An indication of this came when, ahead of Mr Zardari’s visit, the Union home ministry handed over to the Prime Minister’s Office all the dossiers it has given to Pakistan post 26/11, including the one on Saeed. Earlier this week, the US government put out a bounty of $10 million on Saeed.

Amidst indications that Saeed will figure in the PM-President meeting, Mr Zardari himself chose to strike a different note on Saturday. He told reporters in Lahore that he did not expect Saeed to be the focus of his meeting with the Indian PM. “My stance on Saeed is not different from that of my government. My visit to India is of a religious nature and I do not think Manmohan Singh will make me sit (and discuss only) this issue,” said Mr Zardari.

Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik is also part of the the Pakistan President’s delegation.

The Zardari-Singh meeting is scheduled for half an hour, beginning 12.15 pm Sunday at the Prime Minister’s 7, Race Course Road residence.

http://www.asianage.com/india/pm-gets-2611-ammo-zardari-107

BBC News – Karzai reaches out to Pakistan over India pact

5 October 2011

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought to reassure Pakistan about a strategic partnership agreement he signed with India in Delhi on Tuesday.

“Pakistan is a twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement that we signed yesterday with our friend will not affect our brother,” he said.

India has promised to help Afghanistan when foreign forces withdraw in 2014.

Correspondents say the deal is viewed with suspicion in Pakistan, which sees Afghanistan as its backyard.

Close relationship

“This strategic partnership… is not directed against any country… this strategic partnership is to support Afghanistan,” President Karzai said during a lecture organised by an Indian think-tank on Wednesday.

His two-day visit to India has been planned for months but it follows a series of attacks in recent weeks which have damaged ties between Kabul and India’s rival, Pakistan.

India is a major player in Afghanistan and has already pledged $2bn (£1.3bn) in assistance.

At Tuesday’s press conference in Delhi, Mr Singh said violence in Afghanistan was undermining security in South Asia.

He said that the strategic partnership between the two countries would create an “institutional framework” so that India could help in Afghan “capacity building” in the areas of education, development and people-to-people contacts.

The pact is believed to include an Indian commitment to increase its training of Afghan security forces, including the police, although Mr Singh made no reference to that in his press conference remarks.

The prime minister said that the two countries had also signed two agreements relating to Afghanistan’s energy requirements which represented “a new dimension in economic relations” to enable Kabul to integrate more effectively with the Indian economy and other economies in South Asia.

He said that the people of India sympathised with Afghanistan as it sought to cope with “acts of terrorism… particularly the assassination of [peace envoy] Burhanuddin Rabbani”.

“Rabbani was our guest in India in July and we were greatly encouraged by his vision,” Mr Singh said.

“His brutal assassination should… strengthen our resolve to jointly confront the menace of terrorism.”

President Karzai said that he was “grateful” for India’s help and reiterated that his government would work closely with the US, Europe and India to plan Afghanistan’s future.

Correspondents say Delhi is concerned about the security situation in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly as foreign troops begin to withdraw from the region.

India is one of Afghanistan’s biggest donors, having pledged money for projects ranging from road construction to the building of the Afghan parliament – and is keen to play a bigger role.

Delhi has often accused Islamabad of links to groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network that have carried out attacks in Afghanistan on Indian targets, including an assault on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008, in which 40 people were killed.

Last week, US officials demanded Pakistan stop supporting the Haqqani network, an allegation Islamabad rejects.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15181095