India hands over list of 20 suspects

NEW DELHI (Agencies) - In the wake of Mumbai terror strikes, India’s External Affairs Ministry on Monday summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik to lodge protest over Pakistan’s failure to curb terrorism emanating from its soil and also formally accused “elements” in Pakistan of being behind the militant attacks and demanded that Islamabad take “strong action”.
An Indian television channel reported that New Delhi also presented a list of 20 suspected persons, including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Dawood Ibrahim and Masood Azhar, to the Pakistani envoy and demanded that they be handed over to India.
“The High Commissioner of Pakistan was called to the Ministry of External Affairs this (Monday) evening. He was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan,” a statement said.
In New Delhi’s first formal complaint to Islamabad, India said it “expects that strong action would be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage”.
India’s Foreign Ministry has said investigations have shown that all the militants involved in the Mumbai attacks were Pakistani nationals.
India handed over the written protest just hours after New Delhi warned the carnage in Mumbai was a major setback for the peace process launched by the South Asian neighbours in 2004.
Our Staff Reporter from Islamabad adds: Pakistani officials denied that the Pakistan’s Ambassador to India was summoned by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to lodge a formal protest over Mumbai attacks.
Pakistani Foreign Office said all the modes of communications between India and Pakistan were open and there was a procedure in this connection which was followed everywhere. He said Pak High Commissioner was not summoned.
Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Satya Pal also visited Pakistani Foreign Office Monday along with Deputy High Commissioner of India and discussed the Mumbai attacks with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, said an official here requesting anonymity.
He said that the visit of Indian High Commissioner to Foreign Office was a routine matter and his meeting with Foreign Secretary was preplanned, as was the case with the visit of Pakistani Ambassador Shahid Malik to the Indian Foreign Ministry.
APP adds: Diplomatic channels between Pakistan and India are fully operational, FO spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said in response to a question regarding diplomatic contacts between the two countries.
For example, he said the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi was received by the Special Secretary at the External Affairs Ministry at 6:30 pm (New Delhi time) while the Indian High Commissioner was received by the Foreign Secretary at 7:00pm (Islamabad time) on Monday.