Foreign Correspondence

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Pakistan Sees Terror Role
FEBRUARY 13, 2009

Official Recognition on Mumbai Attack Is Concession to India
By ZAHID HUSSAIN in Islamabad and MATTHEW ROSENBERG in New Delhi

Pakistan publicly acknowledged for the first time Thursday that last year's terrorist attack on Mumbai was partly planned on its soil and said it had arrested most of the key plotters, the clearest sign yet that Pakistan intends to cooperate with international efforts to prosecute those behind the attacks.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik's announcement appeared to mark a break from Pakistan's equivocation over the role of its people in the attacks. While India and the U.S. urged Islamabad to take responsibility, some Pakistani officials had suggested the plot was hatched elsewhere.

"Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan," Mr. Malik said. "I want to
assure our nation, I want to assure the international community, that we mean business."

Detailing a strong Pakistani link to the three-day rampage in November, Mr. Malik said six people have been charged in Pakistan with "abetting, conspiracy and facilitation" of a terrorist act, and several other suspected plotters are in Pakistani custody or under investigation.

India's Foreign Ministry called Pakistan's statement "a positive development"
and said it would share whatever additional information it could.

That was a marked change from the accusatory tone New Delhi has taken with Islamabad since the attacks
on luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other targets left 171 people dead, including nine assailants.

Officials in Washington have pushed Pakistan to conduct a thorough
investigation and offer a complete, public accounting of what they found.

Mr. Malik's statements may have come under U.S. pressure or been timed as a gesture to the U.S.; his news
conference came on the heels of a visit by Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

WSJ's Nik Deogun discusses the significance of Pakistan's recent admission that last year's attack on Mumbai was largely planned on its soil and that it had arrested most of the key plotters. However, he tells colleague Adam Najberg there are still questions to be answered.
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"Pakistan knows the entire international community is watching and wants to see justice," said State
Department spokesman Robert Wood. He called reports of the arrests "a very positive step."

Mr. Malik said his investigators had tracked down safe houses and hideouts used by the conspirators, traced the boats that carried the attackers from a seaside Pakistani town to the waters outside Mumbai, and found the store in the Arabian Sea port of Karachi that sold the engines used to power the dinghies that carried the 10 gunmen ashore.

"The boats that were used by the terrorists to reach Mumbai are under our possession,"
he said. He added that authorities have also taken into custody the crews that sailed them.

Mr. Malik described a plot that used the global communications network to mask its origins. Some of the mobile-phone SIM cards were from Austria and India, Internet phone calls were made with an account paid for in Barcelona, and a satellite phone was purchased in the Middle East.

The suspects being held include at least one Pakistani who was living Barcelona. "Don't ask how I brought him to Pakistan," Mr. Malik said. "He was lured to come here." Spain's Interior Ministry said it had no information about the arrest and has asked Pakistan for information.

In Pakistan, Mr. Malik said authorities were able to trace and arrest "one of the main operators" -- a
man he said was named Hamman Sadiq -- by sifting through records of bank transfers and telephone calls.

Mr. Malik said some alleged plotters were linked to the banned Pakistani militant
group Lashkar-e-Taiba, the outfit U.S. and Indian officials say was behind the attacks.

Among those "under investigation," according to Mr. Malik, is Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the group's operational commander and the alleged mastermind of the attacks. Mr. Lakhvi was detained in a crackdown on Lashkar in December along with Zarar Shah, Lashkar's communications chief.

Mr. Malik didn't address Indian accusations that elements of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which once had close ties to Lashkar, played a role in plotting the attack. Pakistan has arrested much of Lashkar's leadership.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund will begin a review of Pakistan's economic performance Sunday. Pakistan received $3.1 billion of a $7.6 billion IMF rescue package in November and is expecting a $750 million installment after the review, a Pakistani official said.
—Haris Zamir, Thomas Catan and Louise Radnofsky contributed to this article.

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