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| India-Pakistan |
| India comes up with six new names in Mumbai case |
| 2010-07-05 |
| [Dawn] The government has started examining a list of six suspects given by New Delhi during talks between the two foreign secretaries in Islamabad last week. Most of the suspects have been identified by their aliases and cover names. "A list of six more suspects -- Sajid Mir, Maj Abdur Rehman, Brig Riaz, Abu Kafa, Abu Qama and Abu Hamza -- has been given by India," a security official said. The names of the alleged handlers and controllers of the attack's perpetrators emerged from interrogation by India of American suspect David Coleman Headley, who is being tried in the US for a plot to attack offices of a Danish newspaper that published blasphemous caricatures in 2005. Indias National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to again get access to Mr Headley for further questioning. According to the sketchy details provided by the Indians about the new suspects, Sajid Mir is allegedly an ex-armyman and the international operations commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He is supposedly the 'Individual A' in the Headley affidavit and 'Individual B' in another suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana's affidavit submitted in a US court and is associated with both LeT and Ilyas Kashmiri. He is also reportedly wanted by the US and Australian law-enforcement agencies. Maj Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, as per the Indian information, retired from the army in 2007 and had been arrested by Pakistani security agencies in September last year for his suspected involvement in the Headley case. He was, however, released. The third military man pointed out by the Indian side, Brig Riaz, is allegedly an ex-official of the SCO, the army wing dealing with telecommunications. The other three -- Abu Kafa, Abu Qama and Abu Hamza -- have been identified by their aliases and were allegedly the handlers of the Mumbai attackers. Abu Kafa is also the alias of Mazhar Iqbal, one of the seven suspects currently being tried by the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court in the Mumbai case. An investigator said it was practically unworkable to find the people identified only by their aliases or cover names. Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, who last week held talks with Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad, asked Pakistan to rigorously follow up leads that had emerged from Headley's questioning and arrest other suspects in the Mumbai carnage. The Indian minister had also cautioned that substantive progress in the trust-building process, initiated after a meeting between the prime ministers' of both countries in Bhutan in April, would not be possible unless the Mumbai case was resolved. He had hinted that India would expect forward movement from Pakistan on the issue before the July 15 meeting of the foreign ministers. However, a diplomat said: "Islamabad is committed to proceeding with the Mumbai trial, but to expect everything to be pegged on the Mumbai issue is unfair and against the spirit to normalise bilateral ties." He urged India to look at the trust-building process from a larger angle rather than just through the Mumbai prism. |
| Posted by:Fred |