India/Pakistan

India says it has proof of Pakistan’s involvement in Mumbai attacks

Article published on the 2009-03-21 Latest update 2009-03-21 15:59 TU

Flames come out of the Taj Mahal hotel during a gun battle, 29 November 2008
(Photo: Reuters)

India’s government says that it has “overwhelming evidence” that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in planning the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November that left more than 165 people dead.

Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram also accused Pakistan, in an interview to be aired on television Sunday, of doing nothing to diffuse “the infrastructure of terrorism” on its territory.

“Given the overwhelming evidence we have, I am entitled to presume that official agencies [of Pakistan] were involved [in the attacks]”, he said, referring to the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, or Inter-Services Intelligence.

Chidambaram gave no details of the evidence India claims to have, but says that it was turned over to Pakistani officials last week with a plea to move against the terrorist organisations that planned the attacks. He went on to say that the threat India faces from Pakistani-based militants is virtually undiminished since last November.

Meanwhile, Mumbai police have requested that the only attacker to survive should face the death penalty. Pakistani citizen Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman, known as Kasab, was captured on 26 November and faces charges of murder and “waging war against India.”

The death penalty is not used very often in India, where it nevertheless remains on the books and was requested in this instance because it is “the rarest of rare” cases, a police spokesperson said.

This is a mistake, says Amnesty International’s Asia director, Sam Zarifi, and it parts from India’s otherwise prudent reaction to the terrorist attacks.

“In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, India has shown itself quite sophisticated in terms of how it responds to these things,” Zarifi told RFI. “It’s avoided acting too quickly, it’s shared information.”

But in this case, he questions the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent.

“For people who were quite ready to kill themselves…. What’s the point of giving them the death penalty? There’s no sense that this will be viewed as punishment for them. There’s no sense that this will deter further attacks like this,” he said.