India’s Deputy Interior Minister Shakeel Ahmad on Monday said all of the Mumbai attackers were from Pakistan. Although he stopped short of blaming the Pakistan Government for the attacks, Mr Ahmad insisted that Pakistani territory was “being used for anti-India activities.”
Nuclear armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars and nearly came to a fourth over a previous attack on Indian soil, the focus is now turning to how the terrorist strikes will affect already fraught relations between the neighboring countries.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under growing pressure to exact retribution.
Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari denies any association with the insurgents and warns India against over reacting. A senior security official was quoted in the Pakistan media as saying that if cross-border tensions continue to rise, “the war on terrorism won’t be our priority. We'll take out everything from the western border.”
If Pakistani diverts its 100,000 troops away from fighting Taliban militants along its Afghanistan border, the NATO-led forces, battling insurgents in southern Afghanistan, would suffer a significant setback.
World leaders have called for calm, the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is understood to have spoken to the Indian foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and urged India not to escalate tensions with Pakistan.
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