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Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
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Pakistan briefs India on 26/11 probe

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of a possible meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari next week, the government here addressed a long-standing Indian request to be kept updated about the Mumbai attacks investigation on the Pakistani side and the court proceedings against those arrested in the case.

On Saturday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik met High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal and briefed him about the case, according to officials.

Mr. Malik is said to have reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, according to officials familiar with the discussions at the meeting. The Minister told the Indian envoy that Pakistan was making all efforts to go after the perpetrators, and New Delhi must not doubt the sincerity of the government in this. But he gave no timeline.

The discussions also included the Lahore High Court-ordered release of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder and Jamat-ud-Dawah leader, Hafiz Saeed, earlier this month. Mr. Malik is said to have told Mr. Sabharwal that the government was still planning to appeal the order.

New Delhi had earlier conveyed to the Pakistan Foreign Office that after a briefing by Mr. Malik back in February, it had received no official information from the government here on the Federal Investigation Agency’s probe into the Mumbai attack, or the case in the court.

New Delhi is said to have told the Pakistan Foreign Ministry that whatever information it had was gleaned from media reports, and that it needed to be told through official channels about the various aspects of the investigation, including such details as the exact number of arrests in the case.

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