NationStates Jolt Archive

The Pakistani governmnet has finally moved on the group seen as having planned the Mumbai terror attacks. Is it too little too late and/or will this go some way to repairing the rift with India?:confused:

Arrests as Pakistan reacts to Mumbai attacks
December 8, 2008 - 5:46PM
Pakistani troops seized a camp used by the extremist group blamed in the Mumbai attacks and arrested more than 12 people, two militants said today.

The raid was the first known action by Islamabad in response to the attacks, which Indian officials say were carried out and plotted by Pakistani militants belonging to the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba.

Troops briefly exchanged fire with people at the camp during yesterday's raid close to the town of Muzaffarabad in the Pakistani part of the disputed Kashmir region, the militants said.

Pakistan authorities were not available for comment.

The militants say the camp was used until 2004 by Laskhar-e-Taiba to train recruits to fight Indian rule in its section of Kashmir. More recently, it was used by Laskhar's parent organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa for education and charity work, they say.

The militants spoke on condition of anonymity because they belong to an illegal organisation.

Pakistan is under intense pressure to crack down on the masterminds who trained the gunmen and plotted the siege on the financial capital that left 171 people dead.

It has said it is prepared to cooperate with India if authorities prove the attacks came from Pakistani soil. It has denied any of its state agencies were involved, noting it too is a victim of terrorism.


AP

Collectivity, next time include the links in your OP. As for whether this is a sincere act or a token gesture, we'll see what India has to say to that.

Collectivity, next time include the links in your OP. As for whether this is a sincere act or a token gesture, we'll see what India has to say to that.

Sorry about that N.A.S. :$ Here's the link and another article detailing India's reflections on how it could have handled certain things better:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/arrests-as-pakistan-reacts-to-mumbai-attacks-20081208-6tvr.html

Row over arrests as more Mumbai gunmen feared
Damien McElroy, Mumbai
December 8, 2008
INDIA'S police have acknowledged that more than 10 terrorists carried out the Mumbai attacks, and believe at least two escaped.

Computer-generated photographs of two suspects were circulated to Mumbai's police stations.


Two arrested over Mumbai attacks
Indian police say they have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunmen behind the massacre by supplying them with SIM cards.


Eleven days after the attacks the number of gunmen is still unknown, with some estimates as high as 24.

Bhujangrao Shinde, deputy commissioner of Mumbai police, said the two suspects were taken by taxi across Mumbai as the first attacks were launched on November 26, and dropped at a bus stop in the north of the city.

The images depict two moustached men in their twenties. They were said to be carrying backpacks similar to those worn by the attackers.

The terrorists entered Mumbai by boat. Police had thought they landed in one dinghy, but the discovery of another engine cover means a second may have been used.

Police have no witnesses to the group's arrival, apparently because it coincided with a one-day cricket match between India and England in Cuttack.

The first arrests connected with the attacks are already controversial.

The pair, identified by Kolkata police as Tausif Rahman and Mukhtar Ahmed, were held on suspicion of helping the terrorists by supplying them with mobile phone SIM cards.

But a senior police official in India's Jammu and Kashmir state said Mukhtar Ahmed was part of an undercover counter-insurgency network whose members are usually former Kashmiri militants.

Kolkata police had been told Ahmed is "our man and it's now up to them how to facilitate his release", said the officer.

Kolkata police denied the report. Rahman, who comes from Kolkata, allegedly bought the SIM cards by providing fake documents, including ID cards of dead people.

Police also said an Indian man arrested in February in northern India carrying sketches of Mumbai hotels, the train terminal and other sites that were later attacked was being brought to Mumbai for renewed questioning.

The interrogation of the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, revealed that the gunmen had detailed pictures of the locations.

News of the February arrest has added to criticism about missed warnings and botched intelligence. Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has apologised for "lapses" during investigations.

■ Pakistan's air force was placed on high alert after a man claiming to be India's foreign minister made a threatening call to President Asif Ali Zardari at the height of the Mumbai crisis. The caller was put through after announcing himself as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Once on the line to Mr Zardari, the caller declared that India was on the verge of attacking Pakistan.

TELEGRAPH, AP

http://www.theage.com.au/world/row-over-arrests-as-more-mumbai-gunmen-feared-20081207-6t7a.html?page=-1