Zardari is right to offer 'strong action'

Investigations into the source of the attacks that left 171 people dead in Mumbai have found several leads pointing to the involvement of people based in Pakistan. The terrible history of hatred between Pakistan and India make any such allegations very sensitive.

Pakistani President Asif Zardari responded correctly when asked yesterday in Islamabad by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about his government's commitment to catching the terrorists. He vowed "strong action" against any elements in his country involved in the Mumbai siege, and Rice said she was satisfied with Pakistan's commitment to fight terror.

To cooperate fully will be a genuine test of Zardari's commitment to fight terrorism, and of his government's control over all the parts of the Pakistani security and military establishment. There is always the fear some of the more shadowy and violently anti-Indian parts of the Pakistani forces are able to ignore the presidency if they wish to, and are able to support such anti-Indian acts at worst, or turn a blind eye to them at best.

However, India has gone as far as naming two members of the outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba as being the masterminds behind the atrocities. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar operations chief, recruited one surviving gunman into the attack, and Yousuf Muzammil, the Lashkar operations chief in Kashmir, was called by other terrorists by satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel on the way to Mumbai. Other phone calls have been traced from the attackers to numbers in Lahore. A test of Zardari's commitment will be to let Indian investigating officers work in Pakistan to establish binding evidence.