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India, US tighten screw on Pakistan over Mumbai

Islamabad urged to act effectively against terrorist groups

AFP, New Delhi
India and the United States urged Pakistan yesterday to dismantle radical Islamist groups and punish plotters of the Mumbai attacks after Islamabad admitted die assault was planned partly on its soil.
Washington and New Delhi, which blamed the 60-hour siege on Pakistan's banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, welcomed the arrest of six suspects, including the alleged mastermind, but insisted Islamabad still had work to do.
"Further steps will be required," Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, insisting that Pakistan
should move to "dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism" on its territory.
In a statement to parliament describing the threat emanating from Pakistan as a "global cancer," Mukherjee said the primary responsibility foreradicatingthis threat lay with the government in Islamabad.
"It is imperative that it... act effectively against the licence that terrorist groups enjoy in its territory," he said.
While labelling Thursday's admission a "positive step," the minister was scathing about the months of "prevarication, denial and diversionary tactics" that preceded it.
"We hope that die matter will now be
taken to its logical conclusion and the perpetrators are penalised, " he said.
Pakistan has thrown the ball back to India, submitting a list of 30 questions for more information from New Delhi, stressing that convictions in court will need "tenable evidence" and insisting it "means business”.
"There is no time frame. We have sent questions to India and once we get something concrete from them, the trial will start," said a government official on condition of anonymity.
Two of those in Pakistani custody are senior LeT leaders.
US Director of National Intelligence uennis Diair saiu me oest way forward was for Islamabad to clamp down seriously on Islamic militants.
The best Indian-Pakistani efforts to improve relations "could unravel unless Islamabad takes sustained, concrete, meaningful steps to allay Indian concerns aoout Islamabad's support to antiIndian militant groups." Blair said.
Otherwise, he warned, India could feel compelled to ignite a wider conflict in a region which Washington considers a front line in the war on al Qaeda and theTaliban.
Pakistan's intelligence agency, with US support, bankrolled jihad groups fight-ing Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, convinced that shoring up a western support base would counter (he perceived (hrea( from India.
In 2002, (hen military ruler Pervez Musharraf banned the LeT and other groups fighting against Indian-rule in Kashmir, under pressure from the United States, after an attack on the Indian parliament.
But the extremist presence has mushroomed in Pakistan, with an expanding network of thousands of madrasas believed to be recruiting for militants, and Taliban and al-
Qaeda fighters who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Pakistan has come under massive Western pressure to rein in al-Qaeda militants along the border with Afghanistan, where its under equipped military has waged multiple offensives against Taliban fighters but with no imminent sign of success.
Some commentators drew a link between the announcement about the arrests and this week's regional tour by US envoy Richard Holbrooke as Washington seeks to bind Islamabad into a new strategy to turn around the war against militants.
"It is obviously linked with Holbrooke's visit and the registration of cases was made public before he reached New Delhi," Islamabad-based analyst Anees Jillani said.
Tnere was genuine surprise in New Delhi at what some saw as an unprecedented U-(urn by Islamabad.
"Paik blinks, finally" ran the front page banner headline in the Times of India.
"The confession surprised many because it came close on the heels of a series of red herrings which suggested that Islamabad ... would point its finger at organisations not active on its territory," the Times said.