India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that Abu Hamza, arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks, has confirmed that the attacks were carried out in an organized manner with state support.
“The argument that non-state actors were behind the massacre is no longer valid. He (Hamza) has confirmed that he was in the control room (and) this has confirmed our suspicion that there was some organised effort,” Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
India has repeatedly accused its neighbor and arch rival of some degree of involvement in the November 2008 attacks on two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a restaurant and a train station in Mumbai that killed at least 166 people.
Abu Hamza, an Indian-born militant, was detained at Delhi international airport on June 21 when he arrived from the Middle East.
Indian police believe Hamza was one of the handlers based in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, who issued orders by telephone to 10 gunmen to carry out the attacks.
Pakistan, which has firmly denied allegations of involvement, has asked India to share information on Hamza and has urged New Delhi to refrain from blaming Islamabad.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said on Wednesday that India always blames Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency without any evidence.
Islamabad insists perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks were “non-state actors”.
Pakistan has also indicted seven people for their alleged role in the attacks.
PG/JR/AZ
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