Pakistan Charges 7 Suspects in Mumbai Attacks
Satish Kumar
castrate his own sons to escape death penalty:
Pakistan charges 7 suspects in Mumbai attacks
By KIM GAMEL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 4:13 PM
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan charged seven men in last year's Mumbai attacks
on Wednesday, its first indictment in a case being monitored by India
and the United States to see if Islamabad makes good on promises to
bring those responsible to justice.
Despite a crackdown in the months following the attacks, analysts say
Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for the three-day
assault on the financial center that killed 166 people, remains active
and largely untouched by Pakistani authorities.
The Mumbai attacks halted a slow-moving peace process between Pakistan
and India - which have fought three wars since gaining independence
from Britain in 1947 - aimed at resolving their core dispute over
Kahsmir, which they both claim. India says Pakistan must crack down on
militants before talks can resume.
The charges were announced in a closed door court located inside a
high-security prison in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, on the
eve of the first anniversary of the attacks. They came after months of
delays in the trial. A judge adjourned proceedings until Dec. 5, when
prosecutors will present their opening arguments.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later issued a strong warning to
Pakistan, saying it must do more to punish those behind the attacks.
India has sent Pakistan dossiers of what it says is evidence linking
Pakistani nationals with the attack, including Lashkar-e-Taiba founder
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who remains free.
"Such forces should have no doubt that they will fail in their
nefarious attempts," Singh said in Washington.
Washington is pressing Islamabad to turn away from its traditional
enemy India and focus more on its fight against the Taliban and other
extremists along the Afghan-Pakistani border. That effort has shown
recent progress as Pakistan's army wages a major offensive on its
northwestern frontier with Afghanistan, but the Taliban is just one of
numerous Islamic militant groups in Pakistan.
Two of the defendants, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, have
been publicly accused by India of masterminding the attacks. They were
arrested in December, while the other five were detained in subsequent
months.
The men, who could face the death penalty if convicted, pleaded not
guilty to charges of planning and helping to execute the attack,
defense lawyer Shahbaz Rajput and prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is alleged to have sent 10 gunmen to Mumbai to attack
luxury hotels, a busy train station and other sites, including the
Chabad House - a once-popular site with Jewish travelers where six
foreigners were killed.
India is trying the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab, who also faces
the death penalty.
According to testimony in that trial, the group of attackers landed in
Mumbai after setting sail from the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
They are alleged to have kept in contact with handlers in Pakistan
during the siege via telephone.
Under heavy international pressure, Islamabad has admitted much of the
Mumbai plot originated on its soil and cracked down on militant
training camps in its portion of Kashmir.
But Pakistan's security agencies have a long history of supporting
Lashkar and other militant groups as proxies against the much larger
Indian army in the disputed region of Kashmir. Islamabad says it no
longer does this, but many powerful Pakistani politicians and army
officers are believed to remain sympathetic to the anti-India cause.
"I think Mumbai has made some things more difficult for Lashkar but
has not seriously impeded its ability to operate," said Stephen
Tankel, who is writing a book on the group.
Pakistani authorities have defended their efforts, saying both Lashkar
and its front group Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been banned and U.N. sanctions
imposed.
But analysts say the efforts have done little to curb the group's
popularity.
"You don't see them flaunting their capabilities, but there is no
indicator that they have weakened," said Pakistani military analyst
Ayesha Siddiqa.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pure, was established in the
early 1990s to reclaim territories it views as Muslim land, primarily
the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir. The territory is split between
the two nuclear-armed rivals, and both claim it in its entirety.
The group has come under renewed focus since it was linked to a U.S.
terrorism investigation following last month's arrests of David
Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, in Chicago.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any link to the two men.
The two men are accused of plotting with two unidentified Lashkar-e-
Taiba associates, including a senior operative, and Pakistan-based al-
Qaida commander Ilyas Kashmiri to kill an editor and a cartoonist at
Danish paper Jyllands-Posten. The paper published cartoons in 2005
depicting the Prophet Muhammad that ignited outrage in much of the
Muslim world.
The alleged involvement of Lashkar operatives in the plot has raised
fears that the extremist group is considering attacks on Western
targets as well as India - or providing support to other groups doing
so.
"It has grown from a very regional group physically focused on Kashmir
to a group with ties to Afghanistan and al-Qaida," said Rick Nelson, a
counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. "As it gains in momentum, as it gains in popularity, as it
gains in success, it's going to invariably gain a more global
following."
---
Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad and Ashraf Khan contributed to
this report.
uNmaiviLambi
> Pakistan is like the trader in eunuch-slaves who was forced to
> castrate his own sons to escape death penalty:
They are crooks. They only charged them! The court will acquit them.
All this is drama to get a few more billions from Uncle Sam and timely
for the death anniversary of the attack in Mumbai. I think this
happened with army collaboration