Mumbai attacks 'mastermind' held in Pakistan raid

Islamabad: One of the suspected masterminds of last month's attack by gunmen in Mumbai was arrested by Pakistani security forces in a raid on a militant camp near Muzaffarabad, security sources said on Monday.

While the Pakistani government remained silent over Sunday's raid at the camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters in the hills outside Muzaffarabad, a spokesman for the group confirmed it had been targeted. "Pakistani forces have attacked our camps in Muzaraffabad under pressure from the US and India," Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar, said in a satellite telephone call.

Backed by a helicopter, the troops grabbed Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi among at least 15 people taken on Sunday in the raid on the riverbank camp run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity widely seen as the political arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the officials said. There was a brief gunfight in the camp near Muzaffarabad before the militants were subdued, the officials said.

"The raid was carried out to get details about the activities of the group in Kashmir in the wake of allegations by India that LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) was using Pakistani territory for training," an intelligence official said.

Details of the arrests emerged as Pakistan's government met to discuss the security situation in the wake of the attacks on India's financial centre.

The government said it would cooperate fully with India's investigation into the attacks. "Pakistan rejects terrorism in all forms and manifestations, and recognises that action against terrorism is integral to its core interests," it said.

The surviving gunman captured in Mumbai named Lakhvi and another Lashkar commander, Yusuf Muzammil, as ringleaders in the plot, according to Indian officials.

The White House said yesterday that Pakistan has taken "some positive steps" since the terrorist strikes in Mumbai.

Indian police said they had identified the nine dead gunmen, and the places they came from in Pakistan. Rakesh Maria, the lead investigator for Mumbai police, said three suspects including one in custody were from Okara district, three from Multan, two from Faisalbad, one from Sialkot and he identified the leader as Ismail Khan, from Dera Ismail Khan.