Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: December 10, 2008
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7773927.stm
Indian authorities have released the names
or aliases of the nine suspected militants killed during last month's attacks
in the city of Mumbai (Bombay).
Photographs of eight of the men were released
- the body of the ninth was said to have been too badly burned.
Police said all were from Pakistan. They did
not say how this was known but one gunman, named as Azam Amir Qasab, survived
and has been interrogated.
The attacks began on 26 November and left
at least 170 people dead.
India has blamed Pakistani-based militants
Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.
Earlier Pakistan said it had arrested two
leading militants but that it would not hand them over to India.
Sole survivor
Mumbai's chief police investigator Rakesh
Maria showed photographs of the men taken from their bodies or from the ID
he said they were carrying.
He said all were aged between 20 and 28. Some
of the militants had just one name and had used aliases during training.
The youngest was identified as 20-year-old
Shoaib, alias Soheb, who was said to be from Punjab province.
Three attackers were said to have come from
the central Pakistani city of Multan, Mr Maria said.
He said the group leader was a Lashkar "veteran",
Ismal Khan, 25, from North West Frontier Province.
The photographs taken from dead bodies are
too graphic to show.
Indian investigators have said survivor Azam
Amir Qasab was indoctrinated by Lashkar-e-Taiba (Soldiers of the Pure) and
trained at a camp run by the group.
Some media reports have suggested that truth
serum may be used as part of his interrogation.
Earlier Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar
said Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi had been held.
Mr Lakhvi is the Lashkar commander India suspects
of planning the Mumbai attacks.
"Lakhvi was picked up yesterday. Azhar
has also been picked up," Mr Mukhtar told India's CNN-IBN channel.
He also repeated Islamabad's request for evidence
to be shared with Pakistan.
"Both US and India say they have ample
proof but why is it hidden from us?" Mr Mukhtar asked.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, meanwhile,
repeated that Pakistan would not hand over to India any of its citizens arrested
in connection with last month's attack.
He said that about 16 people had been detained
for questioning so far in a crackdown against banned Islamist groups like
Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Reports say Pakistani police have also ordered
the sealing of some offices used by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Islamic charity seen
as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Mr Qureshi added: "We do not want to
impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us. We are
not oblivious to our responsibilities to defend our homeland."
Delhi's list
Meanwhile, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
said peace talks with India must proceed to "foil the designs of the
terrorists".
"Pakistan is committed to the pursuit,
arrest, trial and punishment of anyone involved in these heinous attacks,"
he wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday.
On Monday, the US praised what it said were
"positive steps" after Pakistani forces raided a camp in Pakistani-administered
Kashmir used by Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India links to the attacks.
But state department spokesman Sean McCormack
also said it was "incumbent upon the Pakistani government to act to prevent
any future terrorist attacks, to break up those networks that may be responsible
for perpetrating acts of violent extremism".
Delhi has not commented on the operation.
Masood Azhar is one of the most wanted men
in India. The group he founded, Jaish-e-Mohammad, is accused along with Lashkar-e-Taiba
of taking part in the attack on India's parliament in 2001 which led the two
countries to the brink of war.
Mr Azhar is reportedly on a list of people
Delhi has demanded Pakistan hand over.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says
Mr Azhar has been in and out of Pakistani custody over the past five years.
Our correspondent says he is no longer considered
to be in day-to-day charge of Jaish-e-Mohammad and detaining him will make
little difference to militant activity.
The group is thought to behind a string of
attacks inside Pakistan as well.
Although the authorities in Pakistan formally
banned Lashkar six years ago and curbed its activities, its camps were never
closed.
