World | Pakistan
Pakistan confirms terror arrests
Senior Indian official described Pakistani actions so far as "eyewash".
- Reuters
- Published: 23:39 December 10, 2008
- Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani addresses reporters in Multan on Wednesday.
- Image Credit: AP
Islamabad: Pakistan has confirmed the arrest of two men named by India as planners of the militant attack on Mumbai, but a senior Indian official described Pakistani actions so far as "eyewash".
Two operations commanders with the Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadi group, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah were being held, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told journalists in Multan city.
"They have been detained for investigation," he said, providing the first official confirmation since Lakhvi's arrest in a raid on a Lashkar camp in Pakistani Kashmir on Sunday.
While other media have reported up to 40 people had been arrested, Pakistani intelligence officials said only around a dozen people have been detained, mostly in the raid on a camp outside Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Gilani said he had no up-to-date information on whether Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, was also detained, as some media have reported.
Scepticism abounds in India over the sincerity of Pakistan's actions because of alleged past ties between the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and terror groups that had fought Indian rule in Kashmir.
"This is an eyewash. We want action that meets our concern," a senior Indian government official, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
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