India/Pakistan

Explosives found in Mumbai, demonstration in Islamabad

Article published on the 2008-12-03 Latest update 2008-12-03 16:14 TU

Crowds protest outside Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel
(Photo: Reuters)

Police in Mumbai say that they have found a defused explosives left at the city's main railway station by the group which attacked targets in the city last week. They say that the situation is "under control" and that the material was found in baggage that belonged to victims shot during the violence.

"This is part of the same consignment which the terrorists had brought on Wednesday night when they were attacking and running helter-skelter, some of the material had been left behind," anti-terrorism chief KP Raghuvashi said.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state where Mumbai is situated, was due to visit the station on Wednesday evening. Indian television reports that his resignation, offered Monday, has been accepted by leaders of his party, Congress, after severe criticism of official handling of the assaults.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the city Wednesday, demanding that the government provide better protection.

Jamaat-e-Islami members demonstrate in Islamabad
(Photo: Reuters)

In Islamand, about 2,000 students joined a "Defence of Pakistan" rally organised by the student wing of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party. 

Party leaders called for troops to be taken out of western tribal areas, where they are fighting the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and placed on the eastern border with India. They claimed that Washington is backing Delhi's accusations of their country's involvement, so as to "destroy Pakistan".

In Delhi, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice that "there is no doubt the terrorists were individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan".

Pakistani MP Ayaz Amir does not agree. "There are some wild allegations in the Indian media about emails being intercepted about cellphone calls having been monitored," he says. "But, if that is the case, all this should be presented to Pakistan and, if there is any credence to these charges, then Pakistan should be put on the spot."

The charges give rise to "the feeling that Pakistan is being pushed around, that would go down well with no country and no nation", says Amir, a member of the opposition Muslim League (PML-N).

US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen told officials in Islamabad to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan" in talks Wednesday.

But Amir believes that Washington is not giving wholehearted backing to Delhi.

"The Americans, I think, are not interested in tension rising between India and Pakistan," he says. "They have their hands full in Afghanistan and they don’t want the attention of the Pakistan army to be diverted from the western frontier to the eastern frontier."