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Pakistan: 10 days for Mumbai attack investigation | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) – Investigators have 10 days to complete their inquiries into the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan’s top Interior Ministry official said Saturday.

Rehman Malik told reporters that investigators were looking at information handed over by India and leads gathered independently. Provincial and central government-level investigations were ongoing, he said.

Islamabad is under pressure to clamp down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistan-based militant group that India blames for the November siege that killed 164 people in its commercial capital.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said it had arrested 71 people linked to the group and that another 124 were under surveillance and had to register their every move with police.

Malik said he hoped to fast-track the investigation and build a case quickly, but said much depended on the speed at which the judicial system moved.

On Jan. 5, India handed Pakistan a dossier of evidence that included information on interrogations, weapons and data gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers who attacked iconic Mumbai targets such as hotels and a Jewish center.

India said the material proved Pakistan-based militants plotted and executed the attacks. Indian officials have repeatedly insinuated that Pakistani intelligence agents were involved.

Pakistan denies that, though it has accepted that the one Mumbai gunman captured alive is a Pakistani.