TENSION BETWEEN India and Pakistan deepened yesterday as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to persuade New Delhi to adopt a more measured stance towards Islamabad after last week's terrorist strike on Mumbai that claimed more than 180 lives, writes Rahul Bediin New Delhi
Striking a discordant note at a joint news conference with Dr Rice, India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said there was "no doubt" that the 10 gunmen who went on a shooting spree across Mumbai and laid siege to two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre were trained, launched and handled from Pakistan.
"What action will be taken by the [Indian] government will depend on the response we have from the Pakistan authorities," he said, referring to India's demand that Islamabad hand over 20 terrorist suspects and crack down on cross-border militancy as it had promised in 2001.
"After obtaining the response the government will do what it considers necessary to protect its territorial integrity, safety and security of its citizens," he added, a choice that officials said did not exclude a military option.
Mr Mukherjee said India wanted to see the terrorist groups who perpetrated the Mumbai attacks brought to justice and that it expected all friendly governments and the international community to ensure that this happened.
India claims the terrorists belonged to the Lashe-i-Taiba (LiT) jihadi group based at Mudrike near the eastern border city of Lahore on the basis of information provided by the one of the 10 gunmen who was apprehended. The other nine were shot dead.
With an election due by next May, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to form a tough response to opposition and public criticism which has intensified since the attacks that his ruling Congress Party-led coalition is weak on security.
Ms Rice, who cut short her European trip, has urged Pakistan to co-operate "fully and transparently" in investigations into the attacks. "I have said that Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency and co-operate fully and transparently. That message has been delivered and will be delivered to Pakistan," Ms Rice, who travels to Pakistan today, said.
The US secretary of state also said the attacks bore the fingerprints of al-Qaeda but hastily added that she was not going to jump to any conclusions about who was responsible.
Senior Indian diplomats said Ms Rice was on a damage control mission in Delhi as military tension between the neighbours could jeopardise US counter-terrorism efforts along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier. It could prompt Islamabad to move its troops fighting al-Qaeda and associated Taliban militants to the eastern frontier with India.
"The US does not want that to happen as it would impinge adversely on its ongoing military operations in Afghanistan," a senior western diplomat in Delhi said.
Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari dismissed India's claims.
"We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he [the seized gunman] is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt that he's a Pakistani," Mr Zardari told CNN yesterday.
He also said he would not accept an Indian demand to hand over 20 of the terrorists and criminals that Delhi claims were living in Pakistan, saying if there was any evidence against them they would be tried locally.
In other efforts to ease tension between the neighbours who have since independence fought three wars and an 11-week military engagement in 1999, the top US military commander arrived in Islamabad yesterday.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, urged Pakistani officials to "investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to [terrorist] groups in Pakistan" and to "take more concerted action against militant extremists in the country".