Mumbai attacks 'launched by neighbour'

6 Dec 2008, 12:35 pm   -   Source: DPA
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India has been on high alert since the terrorist attacks, addressing any new security threats (AAP).

India has been on high alert since the terrorist attacks, addressing any new security threats (AAP).

The Indian Prime Minister expects the world community to recognise and respond to the role of a neighbouring country in launching the Mumbai terror attacks.

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The Indian Prime Minister expects the world community to recognise and respond to the role of a neighbouring country in launching the Mumbai terror attacks.

Singh also demanded the world help India bring perpetrators of the attack to justice.

"The people of India feel a sense of hurt and anger as never seen before and therefore it is the obligation of all concerned to ensure that the perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to book," Singh said after talks with visiting Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

A group of heavily armed gunmen unleashed mayhem in India's financial hub, Mumbai, on the night of November 26, shooting and throwing grenades at several sites, including two luxury hotels, the city's main railway station, a hospital and a Jewish centre.

The terrorists fired from automatic weapons and lobbed grenades, killing 172 people and injuring 293.

Indian police said the gunmen came by sea from the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

A more than 60-hour stand-off with the terrorists ended on Saturday.

International appeal

Singh said India had given the message to US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who visited the Indian capital on Wednesday, and leaders of other countries.

"We will wait for the outcome," he said. "We expect the international community to wake up and recognise that terror anywhere and everywhere constitutes a threat to world peace and
prosperity."

Airport scare

The prime minister's comments came amid heightened security at Indian airports and a terror scare at Delhi's international airport in the early hours of Friday.

An official of the unit in charge of security at the airport said some passengers had reported hearing gunshots near the entrance to the international departure lounge, but nothing was found.

"There were no eyewitnesses, no injuries. Our search and combing operations found nothing where the gunshots were perceived to have come from," Udayan Banerjee a senior officer with the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said.

He said, in a separate incident, a large passenger vehicle that refused to stop at the airport entry checkpoint was chased but lost after about a kilometre. There was one person in the car.

The airport was closed for about 20 minutes and three international flights were delayed.

An email to airport officials at Delhi had warned of terror strikes between Wednesday and Sunday, the IANS news agency reported.

Meanwhile, federal Home Minister P Chidambaram met victims of the terror attacks in hospitals and also visited some attack sites.

He said there was ample evidence to link the Mumbai attacks to organisations or entities responsible for earlier terror strikes.

India had informed Pakistani the Mumbai attacks were carried out by elements based in Pakistan and demanded action against them, he said.

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