ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — India pressed Pakistan on Saturday to put more suspects on trial for purported links to the 2008 Bombay attacks, a sign of persistent tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals that are trying to resume peace talks.
The two countries ended the day by vowing to work together to bring the masterminds of the assault to justice.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said he had raised the issue with Pakistan’s interior minister during meetings of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Islamabad.
“All the masterminds and handlers behind the [attacks] must be brought to justice,” he said. “We must ensure thatterrorists have no free run either in Pakistan or India, and both countries must work together.”
Chidambaram did not say whom New Delhi wants to be prosecuted in Pakistan. But Indian authorities earlier pointed to hard-line cleric Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
Saeed is a founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistani militant group blamed in the attacks that killed 166 people in India’s financial capital. He now heads a charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, that is reported to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Pakistan courts have ruled that there is not enough evidence to detain Saeed, and Islamabad has pushed New Delhi to provide more information that could help the case against the cleric.
In a sign of the cooperation the rivals committed to Saturday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said his country had received additional information from India about the attacks.
“No act of terrorism will be allowed from Pakistan to be replicated like Bombay or anywhere,” Malik said. “We have resolved to work together.”
In May, an Indian court sentenced the only surviving gun-man from the attacks to death. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani, was one of 10 men who attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station in Bombay. Millions around the world watched the violence unfold live on television.
Pakistan has arrested at least seven other people in the attacks, and they are facing trial. But Islamabad has not said publicly whether it is seeking more suspects.
Last Sunday, Zimbabwe arrested a Pakistani man who was wanted by Islamabad for involvement in the assault, the African country’s state-run Herald newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources. Imran Muhammad, 33, was picked up for using a fake passport while trying to enter South Africa, which is hosting the World Cup soccer tournament, police said Saturday. The second man was identified as Chaudry Parvez Ahmed.
South African Police spokesman Vish Naidoo said authorities did not suspect the two men of terrorism or of plotting threats to the World Cup.
Zimbabwean police said they had contacted Pakistan’s security agencies and Interpol for information. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena declined to give further information on the arrests.
“We are talking to Interpol, and we are waiting for some information from the Pakistani security agencies,” he said.
Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
In recent months, India and Pakistan have taken steps toward resuming peace talks aimed at resolving issues dating back six decades, including a dispute over the territory of Kashmir. India’s foreign secretary met with her Pakistani counterpart last week to prepare for ministerial-level talks.
Also Saturday, a suspected U.S. missile strike killed two purported militants in a Pakistani tribal region that is considered a base for insurgents accused of attacking Western troops across the border in Afghanistan, officials said.
The missile, fired from an unmanned drone, flattened a house near North Waziristan’s Mir Ali, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. They said one of the men was a foreigner.
The United States frequently uses missile strikes to target Taliban and al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan’s northwest, especially the lawless tribal regions near the Afghan border where many insurgents hide. Pakistan publicly protests the strikes as violations of its sovereignty, but is believed to have assisted in at least some of the attacks.
The U.S. doesn’t publicly acknowledge the existence of the covert CIA-run program.
Meanwhile, two bombs exploded outside shops selling movies in a commercial market in Lahore, wounding four people, said police official Chaudhry Shafiq.
In recent months, several such attacks in the eastern city have targeted theaters, movie shops, brothels and places frequented by young couples. Police blame militant groups, which say the places are un-Islamic.
Information for this article was contributed from Lahore by Babar Dogar, from Harare, Zimbabwe, by Chengetai Zvauya, and from Johannesburg by Donna Bryson of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 11 on 06/27/2010