Pakistan to Charge 7 in Mumbai Attacks

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials this week will announce charges against seven suspects in last years terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the interior minister said Saturday. But he added that India must provide more evidence before Pakistan would charge the leader of a banned Islamist group who India suspects was involved in planning and financing the attacks.Pakistan has been under pressure from India to do more to try to bring those behind the attacks, in which militants attacked hotels and other targets over three days, killing 163 people.
Rehman Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, said in the news briefing that concrete evidence is needed from India

mumbai-attacks on all the suspects so that Pakistan can present its strongest case to the courts.
Lets not play the blame game. Lets play a fair game, Mr. Malik said.
He complained, in particular, about a lack of evidence from India against the Islamist leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
Mr. Saeed has run a Muslim charity that international intelligence officials say serves as a front for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which he founded.
What we need is evidence, Mr. Malik said, insisting that the statements by Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman, were not enough to arrest Mr. Saeed.
Last week, the Pakistani police filed a case against Mr. Saeed, charging him with hate speech against the state for using inflammatory language about Pakistan. But Mr. Malik said that case was not opened to reduce international pressure regarding Mr. Saeed.
In a separate development on Saturday, Islamabad police raided the office of a local security firm named Inter-Risk that is providing security to the American Embassy in Islamabad.Two persons were arrested and accused of possessing illegal weapons.The raid followed a report published Friday by Dawn, the countrys most prestigious newspaper, that Inter-Risk had imported more than 80 automatic prohibited weapons. The police recovered 61 pump action guns, 9 revolvers and a cache of bullets in the raid, police officials said, and they were searching for the owner of the company.For weeks, Pakistan has been gripped by rumors that the controversial American company, Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, was working in Pakistan. Blackwater guards were involved in shootings in 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.The rumors were spurred after plans to expand the American embassy in Islamabad were made public.
Nationalist politicians and right-wing Islamic political parties have opposed the expansion plans, expressing fears that hundreds of Marines and private security contractors will come and eventually take over the countrys nuclear weapons.Pakistani and American officials have persistently denied that Xe is in the country.
Mr. Malik declined to comment on the raid. But he also denied the presence of Xe and derided local news media reports that Marines and security contractors were entering the country without proper documentation.

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