More evidence against Pak,LeT admits to role in Mumbai attacks

New York/Islamabad, Dec 31 (PTI) The US has exposed
the involvement of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba in the
Mumbai carnage following a "confession" by its top commander
Zarar Shah and handing over of taped conversations of group's
operation head Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi to Pakistan, media reports
said Wednesday.

The Americans are believed to have given Pakistan a
taped conversation Lakhvi allegedly had with gunmen involved
in the attacks on Mumbai on November 26, Pakistan's Dawn
newspaper quoted US and diplomatic sources as saying.

Taking a tough stand following Islamabad's persistent
denials on involvement of its nationals in the terror strikes,
the US has asked Islamabad to extradite Lakhvi to India.

Both Shah and Lakhvi were among the LeT and
Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) activists captured during a crackdown by
Pakistani security forces near Muzaffarabad, the capital of
Pakistan—occupied Kashmir(PoK), on December 7 after intense
international pressure.

Pakistani security officials were quoted by Wall
Street Journal as saying that Shah has confessed to LeT's
role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation.

To add to this, a news channel quoted PMO sources
in Pakistan admitting to the involvement of LeT in the Mumbai
attacks. But PMO spokesman Imran Gardezi was quick to rubbish
it.

These reports are "totally incorrect. The PMO has not
issued any statement about the alleged involvement of LeT
in the Mumbai attacks," he told PTI.

Shah has also implicated other LeT members, and had
broadly confirmed the confession made by the sole captured
militant Ajmal Kasab to Indian investigators -- that the 10
assailants were trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and went
by boat from Karachi to Mumbai, the Journal report said.

It also quoted a person familiar with the
investigation as saying that Shah also admitted that the
attackers spent at lease a few weeks in Karachi, training in
urban combat to hone the skills they would use in their
attacks.

Shah is believed to have told Pakistani interrogators
that he was one of the "key planners" of the operation, and
that he spoke with the attackers during the carnage to give
them advice and keep them focussed.

American audio experts had checked the taped
conversations and concluded it was genuine and that the
speaker was Lakhvi, the Dawn said.

Lakhvi's detention was confirmed by Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani but the LeT operative's current whereabouts
are not known.

Pakistan has stuck to the line that it will not hand
over to India any of its nationals found to be linked to the
Mumbai attacks. It has said such individuals will be tried
under Pakistani laws.

British daily 'The Times' also reported that Shah, a
communicatiaons chief of LeT, allegedly admitted his
complicity in carrying out the attacks. The paper said that
Shah told his investigators that he was in contact with the
gunmen involved in the attacks.

The admission, the official told the paper, is backed
up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of
the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the site of a
60-hour confrontation with Indian security forces.PTI