New Delhi: India has set out to build international pressure on Islamabad after it handed over to Pakistan evidence linking Pakistan-based militants to the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon held a special briefing in New Delhi on Monday for the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of over a dozen countries, including the US, UK, Israel, France, Japan, Germany, Turkey and Canada, to apprise them about the investigation into the Mumbai attacks.
Menon told the diplomats about how 10 heavily armed Pakistani terrorists came from Karachi and carried out attacks in Mumbai on November 26 last year and how they were in touch with their handlers in Pakistan even during the three-day engagement with security forces.
India’s evidence includes the confession of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist held during attacks, a logbook seized from the boat in which the terrorists came, records of satellite phone used by terrorists and transcript of their conversations with their handlers in Pakistan.
In his confession, Kasab has spelt out how he became a motivated terrorist of Lashkar-e-Toiba from a normal youth of Faridkot in Pakistan's Punjab province and how he was trained specifically for the terror mission.
"India presented a very strong case. We will examine it," said Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy after the briefing.
Another country’s diplomat, who didn’t wish to be named, said he was quite pleased and "convinced" with the evidence presented by the Foreign Secretary.
Menon also met visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei and requested him to urge Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism. The Chinese minister said his country has requested both India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue and solve their dispute.
Menon handed over the evidence on Pakistan-based militants to Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik on Monday morning. “It is our expectation that the government of Pakistan will promptly undertake further investigations in Pakistan and share the results with us so as to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Pakistan has said Monday that it was reviewing evidence handed over by Indian authorities. "The Indian Foreign Secretary has handed over some information material regarding terrorist attacks in Mumbai to Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi this (Monday) morning," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Muhammad Sadiq told IANS.
India has also prepared a dossier of evidence about involvement of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which will be handed over to the US by Home Minister P Chidambaram when he goes to Washington later in the week.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS.)
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