Gunmen 'trained in Pakistan'

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-02 07:50

The terrorists who attacked India's financial capital had no links to any government, Pakistan's president said Monday amid claims that at least one of the gunmen belonged to a banned Pakistani militant group.

President Asif Ali Zardari called the attackers "non-state actors," and warned against letting their actions lead to greater enmity in the region.

Tensions between Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India flared after the attacks last week in Mumbai that killed at least 172 people and wounded 239 others.

"Such a tragic incident must bring opportunity rather than the defeat of a nation," Zardari said in an interview with Arj television. "We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors."

Zardari's spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said Islamabad has "demanded evidence of the complicity of any Pakistani group" but has received none.

The White House said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit India tomorrow, underscoring the seriousness with which Washington viewed the attacks.

A team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was in Mumbai yesterday to help with the probe into the attacks, in which six Americans died, an embassy spokesman said.

Two senior Indian investigators said on condition of anonymity that evidence from the interrogation of the only gunman captured after the attacks, Azam Amir Kasav, clearly showed that Pakistani militants had a hand in the attack.

The clean-shaven, 21-year-old with fluent English was photographed during the attack wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Versace logo. He has said his team took orders from "their command in Pakistan", police officials said.

The training was organized by the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, and conducted by a former member of the Pakistani army, a police officer close to the interrogation said on condition of anonymity.

"They underwent training in several phases, which included training in handling weapons, bomb making, survival strategies, survival in a marine environment and even dietary habits," another senior officer said.

The Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba made its name fighting Indian rule in Kashmir but was also blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 that brought the two countries close to war the next year.