Pakistan denies role in ‘heinous crime’ in Mumbai
November 28, 2008
Indian officials said they believe “elements in Pakistan” are somehow involved in the attacks on Mumbai — a claim Islamabad disputes — but one official said it will be difficult to ascertain details before the situation is over.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that some elements in Pakistan are involved,” said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign affairs minister.
“I can’t tell you the details since the investigation is going on,” he said. “Until the investigation is complete, it will be difficult to say where they came from and how they came.”
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also indicated that the gunmen came from Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, in a telephone call with his Pakistani counterpart Friday.
Karachi police have said they have no evidence the attackers departed from their city.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the “heinous crime” and said he would send the chief of his country’s intelligence agency to help with the investigation.
A group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s coordinated and deadly attacks in southern Mumbai, but security analysts know next to nothing about the group, and some discount its claim.
Intelligence officials from India and beyond are trying to determine who the attackers were and what their motivation was. The attacks left at least 155 people dead and more than 300 injured at a nine sites across Mumbai.
“Deccan Mujahedeen seem to be this amazing group that has come out of nowhere, that has been operating under the radar for all this time, yet able to mount such a sophisticated and well-coordinated attack,” security analyst Will Geddes said.
One highly placed intelligence official who has been briefed on the attacks said that the head of the operation is a Bangladeshi and that the militants are Indians, Kashmiris and Bangladeshis. The Indian military has sustained a large number of casualties, the source said.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said the level of sophistication in the attack leads officials to believe that it might be tied to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Pure), an Islamic extremist group that has carried out previous attacks in India.
