Click to play videoNew Delhi: Pakistan admitted on Thursday for the first time that "a part of the conspiracy" related to the Mumbai terror attacks was planned on its soil and that it had arrested six suspects.
But Interior Minister Rehman Malik insisted at a news conference in Pakistan that the terrorists, who slaughtered over 170 people in Mumbai in November last year, were "non-state actors".
Stressing that the Pakistani state had nothing to do with the Mumbai killings, he said, "This is an individual act, act of individuals or non-state actors. Their purpose is to create terror for their own motives. These motives need to be determined. Both India and Pakistan need to work it out."
"A part of the conspiracy has been done in Pakistan," the minister admitted, adding that a first information report (FIR) was registered in Islamabad on Thursday.
The FIR number is 01/2009 and it was lodged in the Special Investigating Unit in Samba.
"The alleged mastermind has been located and is under investigation," Malik said. He added that a total of six men had been arrested in Pakistan for their links with the Mumbai massacre.
Any Pakistani who directs, conspires or does an act of terrorism abroad would deemed to have committed the acts in Pakistan, he stated.
Pakistani had initially sought to deny any links with the 10 terrorists who sailed to Mumbai by sea from Pakistan on November 26 and then went on a horrific killing spree that lasted three days.
Nine of the terrorists were killed and one, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was captured. India said the terrorists were linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has reportedly had close links with the Pakistani intelligence.
Malik said the breakthrough in the investigation had resulted from tracing the fishing vessel used by the militants, purchases of equipment like life jackets and the engine for the rubber dinghy that militants came ashore in Mumbai.
Rehman said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, two members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadi group, were still in custody. He said two other men being held were Khan and Riaz, withholding their full names so as not to compromise the investigation.
One of those arrested, identified as Javed Iqbal, was lured back to Pakistan from the Spanish city of Barcelona, Malik said. Investigators had also discovered that some funds transferred from Italy and Spain were used to finance the attack, Austrian telephone sim cards were used, and he also spoke of a link, possibly an Internet domain, to Houston in the United States.
"Finally my appeal to the Indian authorities is the information which we have requested. This is to make these prosecutions strong so that we can prosecute them successfully to the extent they are convicted," Malik said.
Highlights of the press conference:
- Three boats were used for the attack, they have been identified.
- The other boats were repainted and ‘Mashallah’ was inscribed on it.
- India's evidence is credible: Rehman.
- We have asked 30 questions to India in our reply: Rehman
- Indian High Commissioner briefed in Pakistan: Rehman.
- 26/11 links with Spain, Austria and Italy also established: Rehman
- Six people are under our custody: Rehman
- 26/11 links with Spain, Austria and Italy also established.
- We have requested India to bring to our notice if there is an Indian who is involved in 26/11.
- Some of the accused are linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba.
- LeT operative Zarar Shah, a communication expert, has been located.
- Pakistan wants Ajmal Kasab's statement made in court. It also wants to know how some SIM cards were procured in India, says Rehman.
- Nine accused have been named in the FIR of whom six have been arrested.
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