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Pakistan Military On Alert For 'Indian Aggression'

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The Washington Post

Published: November 30, 2008

MUMBAI, India - Pakistan demanded late Saturday that India produce evidence to support allegations that it was involved in the three-day assault on India's financial and cultural capital, which came to a close earlier in the day.
Indian officials said they had killed or captured 10 gunmen responsible for the rampage through Mumbai, as authorities pulled more bodies from the wreckage of the Taj Mahal hotel.

Indian intelligence officials said Saturday that the only surviving attacker was from Pakistan.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his government was not involved. "If they have evidence, they should share it with us. Our hands are clean," he said at a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. "We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Pakistan warned it would redeploy troops involved in the terrorism fight on its border with Afghanistan to its frontier with India in response to any Indian troop movements.

"Tension with India is mounting. The situation is very critical, and the next 48 hours are very crucial," a senior Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. He said Pakistan had put its air force and navy on high alert. "In case of any Indian aggression, Pakistan will respond to it in a matching way."

In Washington, U.S. intelligence officials said evidence continues to point to Islamist militants in Pakistan who have long sought to spark a war between Pakistan and India over the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir. But the officials stressed that the investigation has barely gotten under way.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, which both claimed after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent. Indian and Western intelligence officials have specifically cited Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based Islamist network founded to fight the Indian army in Kashmir, as a suspect in the attacks.

On Friday, Pakistan reversed a decision to send its spy chief to aid India's investigation, saying it would send a lower-level official. But officials said they would help India identify and capture those behind the attacks.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with security agencies Saturday and has called a meeting of all the political parties today to discuss an anti-terrorism plan.

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