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Pakistan pressures India over Mumbai evidence
By NAHAL TOOSI,Associated Press Writer AP - 2 hours 31 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's foreign minister pointedly urged India on Wednesday to hand over "concrete evidence" against suspects in the deadly Mumbai attacks, ratcheting up pressure on its giant neighbor and rival to back up its claims.
Pakistan has for days been demanding that India share any evidence indicating that Pakistani militants were behind the November assaults that killed more than 160 people. Without such unprecedented cooperation, it says, prosecuting suspects would be impossible.
The stance indicates the civilian Pakistani government, which has been in power less than a year, finds itself in a corner _ at once needing to stay domestically strong in the face of accusations from a historic rival while also needing to appease other nations, analysts say.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Wednesday that so far the evidence Pakistani officials had seen was what was reported by media outlets, and that that wasn't good enough for Pakistan to move forward in prosecuting suspects it rounded up after the attacks.
"India needs to provide concrete evidence for these investigations to move foward," Qureshi said during a joint press conference with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. "We do not share evidence through the media. There are diplomatic channels for that."
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. But while both say they want to avoid a fourth such conflict, putting aside their history to possibly cooperate on an investigation has left them in awkward positions.
"Things have not been made easy by the Indian government _ the way it acted, quite in haste, going public," Pakistani political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said. "A lot of people in positions here are demanding similar kinds of noises and accusing the government of buckling under pressure and not taking a firm nationalistic posture."
The U.S. and Britain have backed up Indian assertions that Lashkar-e-Taiba, an outlawed Pakistan-based militant group with alleged ties to Pakistani intelligence, is behind the Mumbai attacks. India also says the one gunman it captured alive after the attacks is Pakistani.
Besides arresting some suspects, Pakistan has shuttered offices of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an Islamist charity the U.N. recently branded a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
At least one major newspaper here has reported it interviewed the gunman's father in their Pakistani village, and that he confirmed the attacker was his son. However, not only have Pakistani leaders denied any official links to the attacks, they also appear reluctant to acknowledge any of the 10 gunmen were from their country.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told the BBC in an interview posted online Wednesday that reports of the living gunman's background were still being investigated.
"There've been disputed positions in the press," Zardari said. "So I would say the investigation is ongoing, and I would not jump to a conclusion."
Over the weekend, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated any evidence-sharing was a ways off.
"Whatever evidence we have we can make it available," he said. "But you know this is a case we are also investigating. We have not come to a definite conclusion. Therefore, at this juncture perhaps it would be premature to share the evidence."
The back and forth has severely strained a slow-moving peace process between the two nations. Qureshi on Wednesday acknowledged that the attacks had forced a "pause" in dialogue but said that he was optimistic things would improve.
"We have a common objective. We have a common challenge. We have a common enemy. Let us join hands to defeat this enemy," Qureshi said.
Meanwhile Wednesday, more than 100 children rallied against the United Nations for branding the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity a terrorist front, the latest example of the sensitivity surrounding Pakistan's post-Mumbai clampdown.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is popular among many Pakistanis. It runs schools and its relief efforts include helping victims of two major earthquakes in recent years. Pakistan says the charity's welfare work will continue under government supervision, but that has not erased resentments.
The girls and boys in Karachi claimed the U.N.'s move was hampering their studies.
"Don't stray us from education," one placard read. One young protester held a sign addressed to the U.N. secretary general, pleading "Uncle Ban Ki-moon, please don't scare me."
__
Associated Press writers Carley Petesch in New York and Ashraf Khan in Karachi contributed to this report.
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