Militant confesses to Mumbai attacks, Pakistan official says

Revelation may add to pressure on Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A militant arrested in Pakistan has confessed involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and is giving investigators details of the plot, a senior Pakistani government official said yesterday.

The revelation could add to pressure on Islamabad to bring Zarar Shah and other suspects to trial or extradite them to India.

"[Shah] has made some statement that he was involved," said the government official, without providing specific details. "I can tell you that he is singing."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the disclosure, which was first reported in the Wall Street Journal yesterday

A senior intelligence officer said Shah and another suspect, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were cooperating with investigators, but cautioned that authorities had not reached a definite conclusion as to their involvement.

He, too, asked for anonymity. Indian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Gunmen targeted 10 sites, including two five-star hotels and a Jewish center, during the November siege on Mumbai's financial capital, killing 164 people in three days.

India and the United States say the militants who planned and carried out the attacks were Pakistani, and are demanding Islamabad root out and punish those responsible.

The official also said India has shared some evidence of its suspicions, but he said it was "very, very little." Pakistan's president and other top officials have said India has yet to provide evidence.

The intelligence officer also said the country had received "information" on the attacks from other unspecified nations.

"They [India] gave us a list of numbers and phone calls, most of them useless," the official said.

Shah and Lakhvi have been identified as members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned militant group accused by India of carrying out the Mumbai attacks and others on its soil.

They were taken into custody soon after the attacks.

India said both were involved in planning the siege, but hasn't made any evidence public or provided many details about their roles in the plot.

Accusations of Lashkar-e-Taiba's involvement have put Islamabad in a difficult position because the group is widely believed to have been created by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to battle Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by Pakistan and India.

The United States and its Western allies are concerned Pakistan will lose focus on the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban if tensions with India persist.

Washington has called for calm on both sides, but has made it clear it wants to see Pakistan crack down on the attackers. Yesterday, President Bush called his counterparts in India and Pakistan to discuss the situation.

"All three leaders . . . agreed that no one wanted to take any steps that unnecessarily raise tensions," White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe told reporters.

President Asif Ali Zardari told Bush that Pakistan would not tolerate anyone using its territory to launch attacks on other countries, said Zardari spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

In a separate development yesterday, a Pakistani official said government troops killed three militants in an operation to secure the major supply route to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The route through the famed Khyber Pass remained closed for a second day because of the operation, but hopefully will reopen soon, said Fazal Mahmood, a local official in Peshawar.

The US military has praised the campaign and said the temporary closure of the road was not a problem.

Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan rely on the winding, mountainous road for delivery of up to 75 percent of their fuel, food and other goods, which arrive in Pakistan via the port city of Karachi.

Militants have staged repeated attacks on supply convoys heading along the pass across Pakistan's western border to Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistani security forces launched an operation using artillery and helicopter gunships in the Khyber tribal area. "Our forces have killed at least three militants, and the operation is continuing," Mahmood said.