India says Mumbai blasts point to Pakistan inaction

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Deadly bombings in Mumbai and rising violence in Kashmir show Islamist militants continue to have bases in Pakistan and this could hurt a peace process with New Delhi, India's junior foreign minister said on Thursday.

The comments by Anand Sharma came as officials in Mumbai named Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba as prime suspect for Tuesday's wave of blasts in India's commercial hub in which 186 people were killed.

Although there has been no breakthrough in investigations into the bombings on crowded commuter trains, Indian security officials have said that only Pakistan-based Islamist militant groups had the capability to carry out such attacks.

While India remained committed to making peace with Pakistan, the peace process was not a one-way street and Islamabad had to fulfil its part of the deal and curb militants, Sharma said.

"The recent incidents have caused shock and concern," he told Reuters in an interview.

"It once again underscores the threat of terrorism and the fact that the infrastructure remains intact, some of the banned outfits remain operational, and they have the resources," he said.

"It is equally important that Pakistan pro-actively joins in this fight against terrorism and demonstrates through action what Pakistani leadership, President Musharraf and others have committed themselves to," Sharma said.

The minister, however, said he would not name any militant group for the Mumbai blasts as investigations were under way.

"What I would like to say is they surely should do more. In particular with regard to the leaders of the banned outfits," Sharma said referring to militant groups outlawed by Pakistan which continue to operate under new names.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and sending Islamist guerrillas into Indian Kashmir, where tens of thousands of people have been killed since an insurgency erupted in 1989.

Islamist guerrillas have also been blamed for several attacks elsewhere across India.

"EXTRAORDINARY PATIENCE"

Pakistan says it has done all it could to curb the militants, in line with a promise it made at the start of peace talks in early 2004.

The peace process has helped improve ties between the old enemies but failed to make any significant progress over resolving the decades-old Kashmir dispute.

In recent months, even before the Mumbai blasts, progress had slowed considerably due to rising violence in Kashmir.

Islamabad rejected Indian charges that an "infrastructure of terrorism" existed on Pakistani soil and offered to help New Delhi's investigations into the Mumbai blasts.

Pakistan's protestations notwithstanding, it needed to do more to curb militant groups before India's patience runs out, analysts said.

"How long can India, Indians and the (Manmohan) Singh government withstand the constant pressure from militant groups before they have to react?" Xenia Dormandy, a South Asia expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, wrote in Thursday's Indian Express newspaper.

"By any measure of international diplomacy, they've already been extraordinarily patient," she said.

Foreign secretaries of the two countries are due to hold talks next week in New Delhi to review the peace process.

Asked if that meeting would take place as scheduled, Sharma said: "There is no view which has been taken. We have to look at the larger picture, not merely meeting of the foreign secretaries."