Mumbai attackers all from Pakistan: India

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001114 [headline] => Mumbai attackers all from Pakistan: India [abstract] => The Mumbai attackers were all from Pakistan, India's deputy interior minister said, as more top political heads rolled over last week's carnage which left more than 170 dead. [keywords] => BBC, Mumbai, attack, Pakistan, gunmen [content] =>

The Mumbai attackers were all from Pakistan, India's deputy interior minister said, as more top political heads rolled over last week's carnage which left more than 170 dead.

With US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice due in India on Wednesday in a show of "solidarity," the comments from Deputy Home Minister Shakeel Ahmad were the strongest yet pointing a finger of blame across the border.

India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, have fought three wars and nearly came to a fourth over a previous attack on Indian soil, and there have been fears the latest bloodshed could deepen tensions between them.

"We are not saying that it is sponsored by the Pakistan government," India's Deputy Home Minister Shakeel Ahmad told the BBC, adding that Pakistani soil was nevertheless being used for "anti-India" activities.

"The terrorists who have been killed in these encounters in Mumbai in the last few days were of Pakistani origin," Ahmad said, as well as the lone gunman arrested after the stunning coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Monday that he had offered to resign amid widespread public anger over perceived intelligence and security failings that contributed to the bloodshed.

"If the responsibility of the attacks is on the chief minister, then I will go," Deshmukh told reporters. His deputy, R.R. Patil, had stepped down earlier in the day.

The most high-profile political casualty has been Interior Minister Shivraj Patil who resigned on Sunday after "owning moral responsibility" and has been replaced.

India's powerful national security adviser offered to quit but will likely stay put.

With a sense of normalcy only slowly returning to the sprawling city, the focus has turned to who might be responsible for the brazen grenade and gun assault on two luxury hotels, a hospital, a railway station, a Jewish centre and other sites.

Suspicion has fallen on Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is fighting Indian control of disputed Kashmir and was behind the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament in New Delhi which pushed the neighbours close to war.

According to Indian media reports Monday citing unnamed sources, Indian  government officials feel that Pakistan has not fully enforced its official ban on the group, and was therefore in some way complicit.

But Pakistan has denied any involvement in the latest bloodshed, which threatens to derail a slow-moving peace process launched in 2004, and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has urged India not to "over-react."

Pakistan has repeatedly underlined that it is fighting its own battle against Islamist insurgents, who have taken their bloody campaign to the heart of the Pakistan capital, and stressed the two nations have a common enemy.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" Zardari told Monday's Financial Times, noting that Pakistan was battling a welter of militant groups along its border with Afghanistan.

"The architects of this calamity in Mumbai have managed to raise a threat on our other border," the president said, referring to the frontier with India.

That comment suggested the Mumbai attacks might prompt Pakistan to consider pulling troops away from the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban along the Afghan border -- a development the United States would surely wish to avoid and one that Rice is bound to address on her visit.

"It is a fact, a sad fact, that India has now experienced this level of terror," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"(Rice) and others in the government will be having discussions going forward about cooperating on the war on terror," he said. "Those will go at the pace with whatever the Indian government is comfortable with."

At least 172 people were killed and almost 300 were wounded in the 60-hour assault that began on Wednesday evening. A Jewish centre was among the targets, and eyewitnesses said some attackers singled out Britons and Americans.

Tension between India and Pakistan date to the post-independence partition of India in 1947 that created the Islamic state of Pakistan and led to horrific bloodletting between Muslims and Hindus.

India has also had its share of homegrown unrest, from Muslims to Maoists to Hindu extremists, and Indian officials have repeatedly declined to blame Pakistan directly for the Mumbai attacks.

"We have had terrorist attacks before... but this attack was different," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday. "They came with the explicit aim of killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including foreign visitors."

About 30 foreigners were killed including five Americans, two French, two Australians and two Canadians.
 

[start_date] => 01 December 2008 | 07:28:18 PM [comments_allowed] => 1 [source] => AFP [commentCount] => 3 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Police surround two luxury hotels in Mumbai. (AAP) [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 52421 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_853596924_mumbai_armed_aap_2911_b.jpg [title] => MUMBAI-ARMED-AAP-2911-b_853596924 [description] => file:site_1_rand_853596924_mumbai_armed_aap_2911_b.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2008-11-29 13:55:05 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 1001073 [label] => Mumbai mourns its dead [display_order] => 1 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1001079 [label] => Injured Aussie heads home from Mumbai [display_order] => 3 [type] => Article ) [2] => Array ( [id] => 1001074 [label] => Bush sends Condoleeza Rice to India [display_order] => 6 [type] => Article ) [3] => Array ( [id] => 1001076 [label] => Higher Aussie toll in Mumbai 'unlikely' [display_order] => 7 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001073 [headline] => Mumbai mourns its dead [abstract] => Hundreds thronged the streets of Mumbai carrying candles to remember those killed in the devastating attacks on the city.
[content] =>

Hundreds thronged Mumbai's boardwalk overlooking the Arabian Sea on Sunday carrying candles to remember those killed in the devastating attacks on the city.

"The ones who were lost on the gruesome day will stay in our heartsforever," one young man scrawled on a sheet of paper posted on a police booth as others waited to write condolence messages.
  
Armed gunmen shot dead commuters at the city's biggest train station and apopular cafe Wednesday night, before seizing two top hotels and a Jewish centre in a strike that left at least 172 people dead and close to 300 injured.
  
Police announced that they had shot dead the last of attackers Saturdaymorning.
  
Hundred of candles were planted along the boardwalk in the shadow of theshattered and blackened windows of one of the hotels seized. Many of those at the vigil were visiting the area for the first time since the attacks.

They were young and old, men and women, some dressed in tight tee-shirtsand cargo pants, others in saris or burkhas. Many of the women wore white, the traditional colour of mourning in India.

Some of the scrawled messages urged Indians to stand together, but many ofthe messages were also angry -- accusing India's politicians of incompetence and urging them to act against Pakistan.

"Hello goverment, when will you wake up!" read one message. "Please dosomething now!"

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 1 December 2008 [articletime] => 1 December 2008 [display_order] => 1 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001079 [headline] => Injured Aussie heads home from Mumbai [abstract] => An Australian woman injured in the Indian terrorist attacks is on her way home.
[content] =>

An Australian woman injured in the Indian terrorist attacks is on her way home.

Katie Anstee, 24, from Sydney was shot at Cafe Leopold on her first day of a trip to Mumbai.
   
The bullet broke her femur and exited through the front of her thigh.
   
Her boyfriend David Coker, 23, has flesh wounds from bullets that grazed his legs.
   
Ms Anstee's parents Chris and Candy Anstee flew to Mumbai to be with their daughter and will be with the couple when they return to Australia on Monday.

Their flight left Mumbai on Sunday night, Channel Nine reported.

The young couple had only been in India for a matter of hours when the deadly attacks occurred.
   
They were at the start of an 11-week holiday to celebrate their graduation from the Australian National University.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 1 December 2008 [articletime] => 1 December 2008 [display_order] => 3 ) ) [comments] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 15816 [author] => John Evans [source] => Cambridge [content] => Our sympathies are with Indians. Even here in the US, we are aware of the diplomacy and tactics Pakistan has repeatedly played against Indians. But killing innocent people is an unjustifiable act which should be condemned. In case India finds appreciable evidence against Pakistan in this matter, the US, EU, Britain and other such countries have the moral right to demand an explanation and if they find any, have the full right to invade Pakistan just like Afghanistan was invaded. [user_headline] => Our sympathies [comment_date] => 03 Dec 2008 10:07 AEST [agree] => 0 [disagree] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 15804 [author] => I.N [source] => Sydney [content] => I think the government of Australia should take diplomatic measures to normalize and ease the tensions building up between two nuclear power nations in the world's most hostile region. Instead of a unilateral approach, the PM Rudd should take a step forward and call for talks before things get worse. It doesnt look like Al Qaeda fashion of attacks and the underlying reason should be dug into. These gunmen could be Kashmiris fighting innocent killing and long human rights violations over decades. [user_headline] => Pakistan - India Tension [comment_date] => 01 Dec 2008 18:19 AEST [agree] => 0 [disagree] => 0 ) [2] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 15801 [author] => Aj [source] => karachi [content] => These Indians want to hide their total intelligence failure by blaming it on Pakistan, how did their Marine Coast Guards could not spot the boats that they are talking about, how did such weapons reached TAJ , and the propaganda spread by indian media has intensified the situation. We, pakistanis, have'nt blamed India for executing Marriott hotel blasts, though the government has sufficient evidence of this, If they have any evidence, why dont they give it to the Pakistani Government ? [user_headline] => AJ [comment_date] => 01 Dec 2008 15:12 AEST [agree] => 0 [disagree] => 1 ) ) ) [winston] => test )