India PM: Pakistan terror groups planning attacks

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-17 17:35

A man keeping guard in a village, walks through the rubble of a home destroyed during the recent military offensive against the Taliban, in Buner district, about 220 km (137 miles) by road from Pakistan's capital Islamabad, August 12, 2009. [Agencies]

NEW DELHI: India's prime minister said Monday there was "credible information" that terrorist groups based in neighboring Pakistan were planning new attacks in the country.

After last year's attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, India put additional security measures in place but "continued vigilance" was needed, Manmohan Singh said at an internal security meeting in the Indian capital.

"There is credible information of ongoing plans of terrorist groups in Pakistan to carry out fresh attacks," the premier said, giving no other details.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistani officials.

Hindu-majority India and mostly Muslim Pakistan have been adversaries since the two nations were born in the bloody partition of the South Asian subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947.

Peace talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors, which started in 2004, stalled after the three-day rampage in Mumbai in November by alleged Pakistani gunmen.

In July, Singh met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of an international summit in Egypt, and the two leaders agreed to separate action against terrorism from their talks on other issues such as water, demilitarization and the disputed territory of Kashmir.

On Monday, Singh said cross-border terrorism from Pakistan was India's most "pervasive threat."

"In dealing with the terrorist challenge, we need to be prepared for encountering more sophisticated technologies and enhanced capabilities. We also need to guard our sea frontier as vigilantly as our land border," he said.

Indian investigators say the 10 Pakistani gunmen involved in the Mumbai attacks reached the coastal city by boat. The sole surviving gunman, a Pakistani, is on trial in India, and Pakistan is also scheduled to try five suspected masterminds of the attack.