Bowing to pressure from the US, Pakistan today offered to set up a joint investigating mechanism with India to probe the terror strikes in Mumbai and said it would “frame a response” to New Delhi’s demand to hand over Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Mohammad and other fugitives. Islamabad’s offer comes close on the heels of the Bush Administration asking Pakistan to extend “total” cooperation to India in the Mumbai terror probe.
Pakistan is “ready to extend a hand of cooperation” and assist “in every way” in tracing the perpetrators of the Mumbai strikes, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said during a brief broadcast on the state-run PTV.
He proposed formation of a “joint investigating mechanism and a joint commission”, saying Pakistan is ready to “compose a team to help India” in the investigation.
Qreshi’s remarks came a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrives in Delhi tomorrow, said in London that she did not want to jump to any conclusions on who is involved in the attacks “but this is time for a complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect (from Pakistan)”.
Asked about India’s demand for the handing over of 20 wanted terrorists, Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters: “We have to look at it formally once we receive it (list of terrorists) and we will frame a response to that.”
India’s list includes terrorists like Hafiz Mohammad and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar besides Dawood Ibrahim, who are allegedly based in that country and are suspected to be behind terror attacks in India.