U.S. Presses Pakistan to Help India as Tensions RiseAmericans Urge Extraditions in Terror Attacks; Rice Calls for 'Resolve and Urgency' but Two Sides Appear Further ApartBy JACKIE RANGE in New Delhi, MATTHEW ROSENBERG in Mumbai, ZAHID HUSSAIN in Islamabad, and JAY SOLOMON in WashingtonThe U.S. is calling on Pakistan to arrest and turn over to India at least some suspects in the Mumbai bombing and cooperate more closely in the investigation, officials said -- aligning the U.S. more closely with India amid escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed adversaries.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cuts short a European tour to visit India. She is working to help ease tension with Pakistan, which has been mounting since the three-day rampage in Mumbai.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in New Delhi on Wednesday, pressed Pakistan to show "resolve and urgency" in finding those behind the assault. A senior diplomat briefed on the U.S. position said Washington is conveying a stronger and more specific message privately to Islamabad.
"The Indian government is under a lot of pressure from their public for not doing more to prevent this attack ... and they need for their political purposes to point to something demonstratively that's been done," said the diplomat. "An arrest by Pakistan is a big statement. Ideally there'd be some sort of extradition" to India.
Thousands of Indians congregated near the burned-out Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday, shouting nationalist and anti-Pakistan slogans -- but also angrily calling for answers from an Indian political establishment they accuse of failing to protect the public.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Islamist students marched in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday shouting anti-U.S. and anti-Indian slogans. (WTF!!!!!!)
A week after the terror attacks in Mumbai, protesters gathered, some calling for war, others for answers.
On Monday, India denied rumors it was massing troops at the border -- but officials also have pointedly refused to rule out military action, most recently during Ms. Rice's visit.
The U.S. is also delivering some cautionary words to India. Ms. Rice said any response to the attacks "needs to be judged by its effectiveness in prevention and also by not creating other, unintended consequences or difficulties." U.S. officials also said India risks overreaching with a list of 20 suspects it wants from Pakistan -- saying that many of the 20 aren't linked to the Mumbai attacks and New Delhi shouldn't force Pakistan into a position where it can't make concessions.
India claims the attacks originated in Pakistan with a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, that was outlawed in 2002 but still operates openly there. Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to have links to al Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
Pakistan denies providing any support to the group.(LIARS!!!)Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S., Said T. Jawad, said in an interview Wednesday that intelligence gathered after the attacks has linked the ISI to the Mumbai bombings.
Calls were placed from a satellite phone left behind by the attackers to "people who were known ISI members or had very strong ties with the ISI," said the ambassador.He also said there is evidence linking Yusuf Muzammil, the man identified by India as the attacks' chief organizer, to the ISI, but he declined to provide details.
After the attacks that killed at least 172 people, Indians held large demonstrations, directing their anger both at India's politicians and at Pakistan.
Pakistan denies aiding Lashkar or having anything to do with the attacks, which killed 171 people at latest count. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has pledged cooperation in the probe. But he suggested in a television interview that he opposes extradition.
"If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts and we would try them in our land and we would sentence them," Mr. Zardari said on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent six hours Wednesday meeting with Mr. Zardari and other Pakistani leaders.
He encouraged them to take "more concerted" action against militant extremists, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. A senior American official said Adm. Mullen urged Pakistani military and intelligence officials to reach out to their Indian counterparts directly.
The official said Adm. Mullen didn't discuss whether Pakistan should extradite the suspects. "That would have blown up the meeting," the official said.
Pakistani leaders are struggling to frame a response to the Mumbai attacks that wouldn't provoke a backlash from their own people and,
perhaps more importantly, the country's powerful security establishment. Even among moderate Pakistanis, sending suspects to India -- a country that has fought three wars with Pakistan -- could provoke widespread outrage. "Send a Pakistani to face Indian justice? No, no, that will not do," said a retired Pakistani general who lives in Rawalpindi, the garrison city on the edge of Islamabad where Pakistan's military establishment is centered.
The enmity between India and Pakistan, both important U.S. allies, presents a growing challenge for Ms. Rice in the twilight of her term as secretary of state.
India and Pakistan now seem further apart than they did immediately after last week's attacks. India initially referred to the terrorists coming from Pakistan only in veiled terms, while Pakistan's senior leaders condemned the attacks and pledged cooperation.
But as India gathers what it says is firm evidence that the attacks were carried out from Pakistani soil, Islamabad has become more prickly. Islamabad says it has yet to be presented with any evidence the attacks were launched from Pakistan, and
disputes Indian claims that the lone captured terrorist hails from there, despite what Indian authorities say is his testimony about his upbringing in Pakistan.Pakistani militants allegedly took part in a 2001 assault on India's Parliament that left 15 people dead and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. That is a scenario the U.S. is desperate to avoid.
How far Mr. Zardari can go in pursuing the perpetrators remains an open question.
Any move against Lashkar-e-Taiba by his shaky government, Pakistan's first civilian government in nearly a decade, could create a huge backlash from Islamic groups.The sensitivity of the situation seems to be reflected in Pakistan's shifting response to India's demands. First, Islamabad said it would send its spy chief to aid in the investigation but then said only a lower-level official would go at some point. Now Mr. Zardari is balking at India's demand to turn over suspects.
Indian leaders face domestic pressures of their own. In the protests in Mumbai Wednesday -- amid groups holding candlelight vigils for victims of the attacks -- protesters marched in the streets with signs reading "Enough is Enough" and "Politicians are a bigger threat, not terrorists." Many protesters said they were furious with Indian politicians in general, regardless of whether they were from the ruling Congress party or the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, center, said at a news conference in New Delhi that Pakistan must show 'resolve and urgency' as she called for cooperation in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks.
"Why has no one shot the chief minister?" asked Meghna Kadakia, a 26-year-old in Mumbai's film industry. "These people should be slaughtered to death."
Crowds blanketed the cordoned-off streets in the city's Colaba neighborhood, epicenter of last week's attacks. The rally, the largest of its kind in years, went peacefully, with no incidences of violence reported.
Many at the protest said they hoped the large public outcry would spur change in a political establishment that has come to be seen by voters as indifferent. One protester singled out the government's bungled response after the strikes began.
"It shouldn't have taken nine hours" for the National Security Guard to arrive, said Kunal Sayani, a self-employed businessman, referring to the Indian strike force that carried out the siege at the Taj hotel and the Oberoi hotel complex.
Adding to questions over officials' response to the attacks, police said Wednesday that they had found and defused two unexploded bombs at the city's main train station where two terrorists went on a killing rampage. The bombs were discovered in luggage amid piles of bags left behind at the station, which authorities are now sorting through.
The station has reopened since the attacks, and it was unclear why it took until now for the bombs to be discovered. A Mumbai police spokesman couldn't be reached to comment.
—Niraj Sheth, Tariq Engineer, Yochi J. Dreazen and Siobhan Gorman contributed to this article.
Write to Jackie Range at
jackie.range@wsj.com, Matthew Rosenberg at
matthew.rosenberg@wsj.com and Jay Solomon at
jay.solomon@wsj.com
AuthorTopic: Rice in India and Pak's duplicity.... (Read 844 times)
May 12, 2006, 08:09:13 AM