Pakistan confirms arrest of Mumbai terror mastermind (Roundup)

Dec 9, 2008, 13:41 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan confirmed Tuesday that the alleged planner of the November 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and chief of a militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, have been arrested.

'Lakhvi was picked up yesterday. Azhar has also been picked up,' Defence Minister Chaudhry Mukhar Ahmed said told CNN-IBN in a telephone interview.

According to Indian officials, Ajmal Amir Kasav, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, told investigators that Lakhwi was the alleged mastermind of the siege.

Lakhwi, who heads the banned Islamic militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, was apprehended at a suspected terrorist-training camp just outside Muzaffarabad city, the capital of Pakistan- administered Kashmir.

Some media reports said over a dozen more people were arrested in the pre-dawn raid. Azhar has not so far been directly linked with the Mumbai attacks that left 172 people killed and more than 300 injured. But he is wanted by India for some other previous terrorist strikes.

The crackdown come as tensions between India and Pakistan wererunning dangerously high. New Delhi has demanded Pakistan hand over the suspects.

Ahmed said Pakistan might allow Indian officials to question Lakhvi and Azhar.

'We will help India in joint investigations,' he said. 'India may be allowed to interrogate these people also.'

However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi ruled out extradition of any of the 16 arrested terror suspects to India.

'The arrests are being made for our own investigations. Even if allegations are proved against any suspect, he will not be handed over to India,' he told reporters on Tuesday in his home town Multan, a city in eastern province of Punjab.

'We will proceed against those arrested under Pakistani laws,' he added.

Some media reports in India said recently if Islamabad does not hand over its wanted men, it might carry out air strikes inside Pakistan.

Qureshi warned New Delhi against such adventurism.

'We do not want war. But if war is waged on us, we are completely prepared for that,' he said. 'Our desire for peace should not be taken as our weakness.'