INDIA CONTINUED its diplomatic offensive against neighbouring rival Pakistan by handing over evidence to Islamabad yesterday linking last year's Mumbai terrorist strikes to "elements" in that country.
India has blamed the November attacks that killed 164 people on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT or Army of the Pure) militant group. But Islamabad has repeatedly denied the allegations and requested "concrete proof".
The dossier provided to Shahid Malik, Pakistan's high commissioner in New Delhi, included material from the interrogation of the sole surviving gunman of the 10 Mumbai attackers, who is in Indian custody.
"Details of the terrorists' communication links with 'elements' in Pakistan during the attack, recovered weapons and equipment, and data retrieved from recovered GPS and satellite phones" have also been handed over to Pakistan, a foreign ministry statement declared.
It claimed this material is linked to elements in Pakistan, adding that it was now India's expectation that the Pakistani government would "promptly undertake further investigations and bring the perpetrators to justice".
"As far as the government of Pakistan is concerned, we ask only that it implement the bilateral commitments that it has made (to prevent its territory from being used to launch terrorist attacks against India) at the highest levels to India," foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi.
Mr Mukherjee said the evidence on the Mumbai attacks would be shared with other governments such as the US, Britain, China and EU member states.
Federal home minister P Chidambaram is travelling to the US later this week to present this evidence to the UN and the US government, including members of president-elect Barack Obama's administration.
Mr Chidambaram said he suspects the Mumbai gunmen may have had ties with Pakistani authorities and not just militants in that country.
"In fact, I will presume that they are state actors or state-assisted actors until the contrary is proved. No non-state actor can mount this attack without any kind of state help," Mr Chidambaram told the NDTV news channel in an interview at the weekend.
Security sources said the dossier included precise details of the Mumbai attackers' "handlers" operating from near a Pakistani army camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.
It also featured taped conversations that indicated the possible complicity of some Pakistani security agencies, including the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a claim Islamabad has denied.
The dossier is also believed to assert that the attackers were provided commando training by retired Pakistani Special Forces personnel.