Islamabad: Pakistan's president has said he will take "strong action" against elements in his country that were involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Asif Ali Zardari's office said he made the pledge during talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Islamabad on Thursday.
A presidential statement said Zardari also repeated a promise to help investigate the attacks and said Pakistan was determined to ensure its territory is not used for any act of terrorism.
Rice said she is satisfied with Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism and its readiness to pursue any lead in the attacks in India.
Pakistan's government, she said, is very committed to the war on terror and does not want to be associated with terrorist elements.
She said that in her meetings with officials "I have found a Pakistani government that is focused on the threat and understands its responsibilities to respond to terrorism and extremism" wherever it is found.
She talked about the importance of Pakistan dealing with those "who may use Pakistani territory even if they are not state actors. And I found a Pakistani leadership that is very focused and I think very committed for its own reasons."
She said Pakistan would investigate what may have happened to support in any way the attacks in Mumbai "because the Pakistani government, I was told and I fully believe, is very commmitted to this war on terror, does not in any way want to be associated with terrorist elements and is indeed fighting to root them out wherever they find them. She said her talks in Pakistan have been "quite satisfactory."
India's demands
India suspects two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group orchestrated the three-day siege of the country's financial capital that killed at least 171 people, Indian officials said Thursday.
Evidence collected in the investigation pointed to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil as masterminds behind last week's bloody rampage in Mumbai, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.
Lakhvi and Muzammil belong to outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba—which India blames in the attack—and are believed to be living in Pakistan, the officials said. Lakhvi was identified as the group's operations chief and Muzammil as its operations chief in Kashmir and other parts of India.
The lone surviving gunman in the assault told police Lakhvi recruited him for the operation, and the assailants called Muzammil on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai. During the attacks, the gunmen used mobile phones taken from hotel guests to place calls to the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Top US military official praises India's restraint
The top US military official who visited India as part of a US-led effort to cool tensions between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks praised New Delhi's restraint on Thursday.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen "thanked Indian officials for their restraint and their desire to cooperate with Pakistani officials in the pursuit of those responsible for the attacks," a US embassy statement said.
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