India seeks arrests of Mumbai suspects
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MUMBAI, India - An Indian court issued arrest warrants yesterday for 22 Pakistani nationals accused of masterminding last year’s deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks, including the founder of an Islamist militant group recently freed by a Pakistani court.
An Indian prosecutor demanded that Islamabad extradite all the suspects, though Pakistan has vowed that it will not transfer any Mumbai suspects to longtime rival India, saying instead it will try them in its own courts.
The warrants were issued in response to a prosecutor’s motion in the ongoing trial of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving suspected gunman in last year’s attacks that left some 166 dead in a three-day siege.
Among those sought for arrest were Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founder of the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba - which India blames for the attacks - and Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, two leaders of the group.
Pakistan arrested all three in December after Indian diplomats provided a dossier of evidence.
However, a court in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore earlier this month freed Saeed, a hard-line Islamic cleric, saying there was no evidence against him. Indian officials heatedly condemned the move.
