The United States has given Pakistan ‘strong evidence’ of the involvement of its nationals in the Mumbai terror strikes.
NEW YORK/ ISLAMABAD: The United States has given Pakistan ‘strong evidence’ of the involvement of its nationals in the Mumbai terror strikes even as a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, Zarar Shah, has reportedly admitted to having plotted the carnage.
Diplomatic sources in Pakistan said the US had handed over tapes of the conversation Lashkar operational commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi had with the terrorists during the Mumbai strikes.
After verifying that the voice was Lakhvi’s, the US asked Pakistan to extradite him to India. But Islamabad is learnt to have rejected the demand.
Shah and Lakhvi were picked up from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and detained under intense international pressure early in December in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Lakhvi’s detention was confirmed by prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, but his whereabouts are not known.
Pakistani security officials were quoted by the
Wall Street Journal as saying that Shah had confessed to the Lashkar’s role in the Mumbai attack.
Shah has implicated other LeT members, broadly confirming the confessions made by the captured terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Amir, that the 10 attackers were trained in PoK and went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.
The Journal also quoted a person familiar with the investigation as saying that Shah admitted that the attackers spent at least a few weeks in Karachi, training in urban combat. Shah is believed to have told interrogators that he was one of the “key planners” of the operation and he spoke with the attackers during the carnage to keep them focused.
American audio experts checked the taped conversations and concluded that the tapes were genuine and one of the speakers was indeed Lakhvi,
Dawn said.
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