Pakistani forces have undertaken their most concerted offensive against an expanding Taliban insurgency that has raised fears for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally’s stability and the safety of its nuclear arsenal.

The focus of the fighting has been the former tourist destination of Swat, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, which the Taliban virtually took as the government alternated between inconclusive military action and peace pacts.

But tension has also been rising in South Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold, with military officials saying an offensive was likely there after Swat is secured.

The United States and the Afghan government have long been pressing Pakistan to root militants out of South Waziristan and other enclaves on the Afghan border, from where the Taliban direct their Afghan war.

Militants attacked a paramilitary force camp in Jandola, 80 km (50 miles) east of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, late on Saturday, security officials said.

“Militants came in force and attacked a paramilitary camp and fighting lasted for eight hours. At least 40 militants were killed while four soldiers died,” said an intelligence official in the region who declined to be identified.

A military spokesman said the militants had been pushed back after a heavy exchange of fire. Up to 15 militants and three soldiers were killed, he said.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualty estimates.

Militant violence in Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.

There have been eight bomb attacks in various towns and cities since the offensive in Swat and neighboring districts began in late April and the Taliban have threatened more.

EXODUS

The offensive in Swat has sparked an exodus of about 2.4 million people, according to government figures, and the country faces a long-term humanitarian crisis.

Bomb attacks in cities and the plight of the displaced could undermine public support for the offensive but for now, analysts say, the authorities are determined to defeat the Taliban in Swat.

The army said on Saturday it had regained full control of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and a top Defense Ministry official said on Sunday the military operation could be over in a two or three days.

“Only five to 10 percent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to three days, the pockets of resistance will be cleared,” Syed Athar Ali, secretary of defense for Pakistan, said at a regional defense meeting in Singapore.

Military spokesman have been cautious about predicting how long the offensive would last, saying there was still resistance in the valley.

“It’s very difficult to give a timeline,” said chief military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas. “It’s a very big area so nobody’s in a position to give any timeline for the operation.”

On Sunday, the military urged civilians to leave the town of Charbagh, about 15 km (10 miles) north of Mingora, and lifted a curfew there and in Mingora to allow people to get out.

Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban.

The United States, which is sending thousands of reinforcements into Afghanistan, has been heartened by the offensive in Swat.

Pakistan battles Taliban; Swat offensive near end

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The government said the attack in a high-security area where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.

The army moved against the militants in the Swat region late last month after the Taliban had seized a district only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital and a peace pact collapsed.

A militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said the Lahore attack was to avenge the offensive in Swat.

“We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation,” the commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.

The violence and a perception the government was being distracted by political squabbling and failing to act to stop the Taliban had alarmed the United States and other Western allies.

Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban and the United States has been heartened by the Swat offensive and by public support for it.

“The response by the military so far has the support of the Pakistani people,” White House National Security Adviser General James Jones said in Washington on Wednesday.

“The government’s popularity has shot up a little bit in the polls and that is going to have an effect in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.

“MAJOR ATTACKS”

But militant attacks in cities could undermine support for the offensive and Hakimullah Mehsud warned of more violence.

“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he said.

The military released late on Wednesday what it said was a tape of an intercepted telephone call between the Taliban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, and an unidentified militant in which Khan urges revenge attacks.

“There’s a need for them to strike soldiers in Punjab so that they can understand and feel pain,” Khan says on the tape, broadcast on Pakistani television.

“Strikes should be carried out on their homes so their kids get killed and then they’ll realize,” he said.

The unidentified man said militants had been ordered to strike wherever they could.

The government has vowed to defeat the Taliban and on Thursday it published an offer of a reward of 5 million rupees ($60,000) for the capture, dead or alive, of the Taliban leader in Swat, Fazlullah, and smaller bounties for 20 of his comrades.

Authorities have warned that militants might launch attacks in retaliation for the offensive in Swat, where the military says about 1,100 militants and about 60 soldiers have been killed. There has been no independent confirmation of those estimates.

Soldiers had made progress in securing Swat’s main town of Mingora, with a commander saying 70 percent of it had been cleared and the remainder would be secured in two or three days.

The offensive has sparked an exodus of 2.3 million people, according to provincial government figures, and the country faces a long-term humanitarian crisis which could also undermine public support for the fight against the Taliban.

But the securing of Mingora would raise the possibility of many of the displaced beginning to go home.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said after the Lahore attack that the militants were on their last legs and getting desperate.

The car bomb brought down a government ambulance service building and damaged a nearby office of the military’s main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Two ISI officers and six other agency officials were among the dead and security officials said their office might have been the target.

Lahore is capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and prosperous province. The country’s second-biggest city is also traditionally home to top bureaucrats and senior military brass.

The city has seen several bomb attacks over the past couple of years, but it felt much safer than other parts of the country until March, when militants launched two brazen assaults.

Bombs in Pakistan’s Peshawar, several casualties

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The announcement follows a deal struck last week between a radical cleric and authorities that brings Sharia law in return for an end to the insurgency.

The Taleban have been assessing that deal and Tuesday’s move followed a meeting under the group’s leader in the region, Maulana Fazlullah.

The scenic valley of Swat has long been blighted by militant violence.

‘Goodwill gesture’

“Today the shura (consultative council) met under Maulana Fazlullah and decided to hold a ceasefire for an indefinite period,” Taleban spokesman in the region Muslim Khan was quoted by the news agency AFP as saying.

“We are releasing all prisoners unconditionally. Today we released four paramilitary soldiers and we will release all security personnel in our custody as a goodwill gesture,” he said.

A previous 10-day truce announced by the militants was set to expire on Wednesday.

The cleric, Sufi Mohammad, who is also Maulana Fazlullah’s father-in-law, has been mediating between the government and the militants.

On Monday, he urged the militants to end the patrolling of streets and to allow the government to set up the Islamic courts they have been fighting for.

Swat has been the scene of bloody clashes between militants and government forces since November 2007. Officials say more than 1,200 civilians have been killed in fighting.

The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat.

An earlier peace agreement broke down in mid-2008.

The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is concern that this peace deal will also not last, with some analysts believing the Taleban want to control territory, not just amend the legal system.

Earlier this month, the North West Frontier Province government signed an agreement with Sufi Mohammad’s proscribed Tanzim-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) for the implementation of a Sharia justice system in Swat.

Sufi Mohammad, who opposes militancy, led thousands of TNSM workers into Swat to set up a peace camp there and to start talks with Maulana Fazlullah.

Preconditions

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan, who was recently in Swat, says the militants are now likely to close their checkpoints in the region as the first step towards the new justice system.

On Monday, the TNSM announced 10 preconditions for its successful implementation.

These included the evacuation of all schools and hospital buildings by the army and an end to all security checks that hamper the movement of people.

The TNSM has called on the government to station troops away from civilian areas.

The group has also called on both sides to release the prisoners they are holding and asked the government to call back to duty the policemen and paramilitary soldiers who were suspended due to desertion or absence from duty.

It urged the government to compensate families that suffered human and material losses and called on thousands of displaced people to return to their homes.

Taleban Swat truce ‘indefinite

Tension has run high between the nuclear-armed rivals since the November attacks which killed 179 people. India has blamed them on the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group denies involvement.

“Countries found wanting in their commitment to zero tolerance of terrorism will be made to pay a heavy price by the international community,” Pranab Mukherjee told a conference in India’s capital.

“Our diplomatic efforts in dealing with terrorist states will continue unabated.”

Indian officials are frustrated at what they see as Pakistan’s slow response in arresting the attack’s planners. They want the incoming U.S. administration of Barack Obama to press Islamabad to act on a dossier of evidence presented this month by New Delhi.

While Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the attacks must have had the support of official agencies within Pakistan, the United States and its allies have stepped back from blaming the Pakistan government.

Despite the tension, the chances of military confrontation between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since 1947, is low thanks in part to the diplomacy of the United States and other powers, analysts say.

“GOOD NEWS IN TWO WEEKS”

The sense that India may not have the full support of the West was highlighted at the weekend.

Indian media criticised Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said on a visit to New Delhi that India needed to resolve the issue of disputed Kashmir as part of a wider strategy to improve relations with Pakistan after the attacks.

New Delhi sees the issue of Kashmir, ruled in part but claimed as a whole by both India and Pakistan, as irrelevant to the Mumbai raid.

Monday, the LeT, which has claimed responsibility for scores of suicide attacks on security forces in its fight against Indian rule, said for the first time that violence was not the only way to deal with Kashmir.

“We don’t see the armed struggle as the only way to achieve our goal, if the world listens to our cries and plays its role in resolving the Kashmir issue,” Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba, said in a statement.

Pakistan condemned the Mumbai attacks from the outset and denied involvement of any of its agencies. It has offered to cooperate with India by sending over a security official and setting up a joint team to investigate.

India has not accepted the offers.

In an Indian TV interview, Miliband said Islamabad must move away from the stance towards LeT he says it held under former president Pervez Musharraf.

“It’s very important that the so-called carousel-and-engage approach is one that is changed, because it obviously doesn’t work,” he told CNN-IBN news channel Sunday.

“It was an approach which recognized that LeT did pose a threat but also recognized that they had to engage with the LeT.”

In Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the government’s top Interior Ministry official, Rehman Malik, briefed foreign diplomats on Pakistani efforts since the attack.

Malik set a 10-day deadline at the weekend for an investigating team to complete a report and Monday promised “good news in two weeks,” said a Western diplomat who attended the meeting.

The Pakistani officials had also indicated a desire for direct interaction with India in the investigation, he said.

“Both were stressing that the original Pakistani offer, both of investigation through a joint commission and, or, a high-level visit were still very much on the table,” said the diplomat.

Pakistan has detained scores of members of the LeT and an affiliated Islamic charity, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but India is demanding it dismantle what it calls the “infrastructure of terrorism.”

Pakistan has been angered by the Indian suggestion that Pakistani state agencies were involved and what it sees as repeated Indian hints of military action.

India keeps up pressure on Pakistan over Mumbai | World | Reuters

Pakistan said it wanted to have an approach of “cooperative engagement” with India as war was no solution to the problem of terrorism which was a global phenomenon. “Quite a lot of material” was provided by India and the Pakistani investigators would work to convert this into “evidence that could stand up to judicial scrutiny,” Interior Ministry chief Rahman Malik told a press conference here.

No case regarding the Mumbai attacks had been registered so far in Pakistan. “If prima facie evidence is available on record, we will then convert it into a criminal case,” Mr. Malik said, adding the time needed for any prosecution would depend on the judiciary.

He said the three-member counter-terror team, probing the Mumbai attack and examining the dossier, had been directed to submit its preliminary findings within 10 days. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Interior Ministry was examining India’s dossier on the Mumbai attacks that was handed over to Pakistan on January 5.

“We have said that after examining the dossier, completing our investigation and examining information from other sources, we will share our findings with India first,” Mr. Qureshi said. Pakistan will pursue an approach of “cooperative engagement” to deal with any further questions that may arise with regard to the Mumbai incident, he said.

Mr. Qureshi said if “any individual or entity linked to Pakistan” wasfound involved in the Mumbai attacks, the government will take action against them according to the country’s law.

Replying to a question in his hometown of Multan, he said the Mumbai incident was not a matter confined to India and Pakistan as nationals of several countries, including the U.S. and Britain, were killed in the attacks.

“We have been successful in conveying our stand that war is not the solution and that terrorism is a global and regional phenomenon. We need a regional approach,” he said. “We don’t want to create war hysteria. The political and military leadership has made measured comments and we will stick to this. We will remain vigilant and it is our endeavour to de-escalate and defuse the situation.”
“No consistency”

He, however, alleged that there was “no consistency” in India’s stance in dealing with the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

“There is no consistency in India’s stance,” Mr. Qureshi said, referring to what he described as flip-flops by New Delhi on matters like the involvement of the Pakistani State and its institutions in the Mumbai attacks and the prosecution of suspects. – PTI

The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan promises fair probe

Despite the announcement, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik dodged a question on whether he was conceding the plot _ which killed 164 people in India’s commercial capital and raised tension between the nuclear-armed rivals _ was hatched on Pakistani soil.

India says a Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, masterminded the November attack. In the days afterward, the U.N. Security Council declared that Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity in Pakistan, was merely a front for the outlawed militant organization.

In a news conference, Malik said 124 leaders of several groups had been arrested, and that authorities had taken steps against 20 offices, 87 schools, two libraries, seven religious schools, and six Web sites linked to the charity. He also said authorities had shut more than a dozen relief camps operated by the charity, some of which have been alleged to be militant training grounds.

It was unclear exactly how many people remained in Pakistani custody, however, and Malik at one point indicated many may now simply be under surveillance. Some are also under house arrest.

Among those under house arrest is Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Also in custody are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, two men India alleges planned the Mumbai attacks.

Malik repeated Islamabad’s call for a joint investigation into the attacks and urged India to hand over more information to assist Pakistan’s own probe.

“We are fully committed to help India in this investigation,” he said. “We have to prove to the world that India and Pakistan stand together against the terrorists because they are the common enemies.”

On Jan. 5, India handed Pakistan a dossier of evidence including information on interrogations, weapons and data gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers.

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

Pakistan denies that. However, it is under strong pressure from countries including the United States and Britain, whose citizens were among the dead in Mumbai, to clamp down Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Pakistan has used the group in the past as a proxy force against India in their struggle over the divided Kashmir region. Washington says the group has developed ties to al-Qaida.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in Mumbai on Thursday that Pakistan, a front-line ally of the West also against the al-Qaida and the Taliban, must show “zero tolerance” for all terror networks on its soil.

Miliband plans to visit Pakistan in the coming days.

Malik said Pakistani detectives would “inquire into” the information provided by India “to try to transform it to evidence, evidence which can stand the test of any court in the world and of course our own court of law.”

As other officials have from the start, he appeared to rule out handing over suspects to India, saying Pakistani laws allowed for the prosecution of citizens who committed crimes elsewhere.

India indicated for the first time that it could accept that stance.

“It would be ideal if they (Pakistan’s government) can hand over the fugitives,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Indian news channel Aaj Tak on Wednesday. “If that is not possible, there should at least be a fair trial of these fugitives in Pakistan.”

The United States expressed some satisfaction at how the South Asian neighbors, who have fought three wars in the past and redeployed some of their troops in recent weeks, were managing the fallout from the Mumbai bloodshed and urged more cooperation.

“We would like to see more the exchange of information about the Mumbai attacks so that you can get to the bottom of exactly who was responsible, see the entire plot, and hold all responsible for their actions, and make sure that in doing so you prevent any further plots from getting to the point of execution,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday.

Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota

Pakistan’s Prime Minister dismissed his national security adviser shortly afterwards. India had been saying for weeks that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was captured after the November attacks, was from Pakistan.

The prime minister’s office said Mehmood Ali Durrani had been sacked “for his irresponsible behavior for not taking the prime minister and other stakeholders into confidence, and a lack of coordination on matters of national security.”

Indian officials have shown increasing frustration at what they see as Pakistan’s unwillingness to fully investigate the attacks in November by 10 gunmen that killed 179 people.

“I say we are keeping all options open,” Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Times Now television. Only hours earlier Defense Minister A.K. Antony had made similar comments.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman said initially on Wednesday the gunman had links with Pakistan and that the investigation was continuing. “We have confirmed it,” she told Reuters later, referring to the fact he was a Pakistani citizen.

The Hindu newspaper published details from India’s dossier of evidence on Wednesday, including what it said were transcripts of conversations between handlers and the gunmen during the attack.

“Everything is being recorded by the media. Inflict the maximum damage. Keep fighting. Don’t be taken alive,” one handler identified as Kafa told a gunman, the newspaper said.

“Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims. Keep your phone switched on so that we can hear the gunfire,” a caller said.

The dossier has also been sent to countries whose citizens were victims of the attacks, such as the United States, as India tried to corner Pakistan diplomatically into bringing the perpetrators to justice.

David Mulford, the U.S. Ambassador to India, said on Wednesday the evidence India had provided was “credible.”

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped up a war of words on Tuesday, saying for the first time the assault “must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan.”

Singh may be playing to a domestic audience before general elections this year. The Samajwadi Party, a key Indian government coalition partner, reportedly threatened to withdraw its support because of what it said was India’s soft stance on Pakistan.

Pakistan has denied any involvement by state agencies and rejected Singh’s accusation, saying India risked destroying all prospects of a serious and objective investigation.

The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since 1947.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Pakistan had made constructive proposals for cooperation and initiated its own investigation but India was unnecessarily whipping up tension.

“Our own investigations into Mumbai have progressed,” Gilani said. “We are prepared to take this process forward with a view to uncovering full facts thus ensuring that the perpetrators of this heinous crime whosoever they may be are brought to justice.”

“India has not only refused to cooperate in the investigations pertaining to Mumbai but has chosen to undertake a media and diplomatic offensive against Pakistan,” he said.

A similar attack on India’s parliament in 2001 nearly sparked a war after a massive build-up of forces on their border.

There has been no such troop build-up this time although Pakistan last month canceled army leave and said it had moved limited numbers of troops off the Afghan border, where it is battling al Qaeda and Taliban militants, for defensive purposes.

Any movement of Pakistani troops off its western border will alarm the United States and other countries with troops in Afghanistan who are depending on Pakistan to disrupt militant supply networks and infiltration into Afghanistan.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference in Kabul on Wednesday Pakistan did not want war but every Pakistani would fight back if India attacked.

“But we do not want a war, no sane person wants war,” Qureshi said.

“The western border is very important … we want troops in large numbers on the western border and we want to remain engaged on the western border and we will do so,” he said. “There is no question of moving away from the western border.”

India says all options open to dismantle terror groups | Reuters.com

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh repeated India’s allegations that the attack was carried out by the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. But in his most forceful speech since the November attacks, he also said “there is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan.”

The careful phrasing seemed aimed at keeping tensions between the bitter rivals at a low burn, and reflects the widespread belief that there are multiple power centers in Pakistan.

The overwhelmingly Muslim nation’s civilian government is relatively new and weak, while its military-controlled spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, is thought to have a high degree of independence.

Singh did not directly name any Pakistani officials, but India has blamed the ISI for being involved in attacks against India in recent years.

Singh also charged Pakistan with “whipping up war hysteria,” and criticized what he called their reluctance to crack down on militants operating on their territory.

The speech came one day after India handed Pakistan evidence that New Delhi says proves the attacks were plotted in Pakistan. The dossier included details from the interrogation of the lone surviving gunman, recovered weapons, and intercepted communications with the suspected handlers back in Pakistan.

The investigation into the attack, which left 164 dead, showed the 10 gunmen could not have been working on their own, Singh said.

“Unfortunately, we cannot choose our neighbors,” Singh said. “Some countries like Pakistan have in the past encouraged and given sanctuary to terrorists and other forces who are antagonistic to India.”

He spoke before a meeting with senior officials from around the country to discuss security concerns in the latest in a recent ratcheting up of Indian rhetoric.

Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Malik Hamad Khan said Islamabad was committed to take action against non-state actors if they were involved in the attacks.

“We have been saying from day one that the state of Pakistan is not to blame if any non-state actors are involved” in the attacks, adding that the actions of individuals should not be blamed on Pakistan.

Calls for war in India have been largely muted, however, with even conservative opposition politicians, who endorse a hard line toward Pakistan, adopting a fairly conciliatory approach.

While Pakistan’s own rhetoric has been fairly quiet in recent days, it has also moved some of its soldiers toward the Indian border and away from the Afghan border, which Islamabad is battling militants.

India, which is largely Hindu, and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other since they gained independence in 1947.

On Tuesday, Singh was highly critical of how Pakistan has handled the investigations into recent attacks, indicating Pakistan has been unwilling — or perhaps unable — to crack down on terrorists operating on its soil.

“The more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion,” he said.

On Monday, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon called for Pakistan to hand over any suspects to New Delhi to be brought “to Indian justice.” Pakistan has said it would try any suspects in its own courts.

But Singh also criticized India’s own security and intelligence operations, which have been excoriated as ineffective and threadbare since the attacks. He called for better maritime security, improved intelligence sharing and stronger local police forces.

Reflecting India’s security fears, a bodyguard stood barely 18 inches (45 centimeters) from Singh during the entire speech, his eyes carefully scanning the crowd.

Analysts say the speech was at once intended for several different audiences: the Indian electorate, who will be heading to the polls in the coming months and have in the past supported confrontations with Pakistan; leaders in Islamabad, who India wants to crack down on the terror network it says operates across the border; and the international community, which New Delhi hopes will help pressure Pakistan into action.

“The idea is to make it more than an Indo-Pak issue,” said Mahesh Rangarajan, a prominent political expert in New Delhi.

The Associated Press: India: Pakistanis `must have’ backed Mumbai attack

Ten gunmen killed 179 people in the attack on India’s financial hub that India has blamed on the Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group.

The group was set up by Pakistani security agencies in the late 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region but was banned in 2002, after Pakistan had signed up to the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.

The Wall Street Journal said in an online report on Wednesday at least one top LeT leader, Zarar Shah, captured in a raid early this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, had confessed to the group’s involvement in the attack.

“He is singing,” an unidentified Pakistani security official told the newspaper, referring to Shah.

India’s angry accusation of a Pakistani link to the assault on Mumbai has revived old hostilities between the nuclear-armed rivals and raised fears of conflict.

Pakistan has condemned the Mumbai attacks and has denied any state role, blaming “non-state actors.”

Pakistani government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment on the report.

Shah’s admission was backed up by U.S. intercepts of a telephone call between Shah and one of the attackers during the assault, the Pakistani security official told the newspaper.

Shah told interrogators that he was one of the main planners of the assault and he had spoken to the attackers during the rampage to give them advice and keep them focused, the newspaper cited a second person familiar with the investigation as saying.

BY BOAT

Shah had implicated other LeT members, and had broadly confirmed the account the sole captured gunman told Indian investigators, the second person told the newspaper.

According to Indian reports, the captured gunman told Indian interrogators the 10 attackers trained in Pakistani Kashmir and later went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.

India’s home minister, P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday repeated India’s line that its neighbor must act on what New Delhi says is evidence of Pakistani militants’ involvement in the attack.

Pakistan has repeatedly said India has not provided evidence.

“If anyone is in a state of denial anything that we give will be denied,” Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.

“What more evidence does Pakistan require than the statement of the captured terrorist and his father?”

Chidambaram was referring to the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, who has told investigators he comes from Faridkot in Pakistan’s Punjab region and that he was recruited by the LeT militant group.

Media in Pakistan have carried reports on a man from Faridkot who said he was Kasab’s father.

Shah was picked up with another LeT commander, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, during Pakistani raids on militants launched in response to the Mumbai attack, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters on December 10.

Pakistani authorities did not have evidence that the LeT was involved in the attacks before the militants were arrested in Kashmir, the security official told the newspaper.

Their arrest was based only on initial guidance from U.S. and British authorities, the newspaper cited the official as saying.

Pakistan has promised to prosecute anyone if sufficient evidence is found linking them to the Mumbai attack but it has ruled out sending any Pakistanis to India for trial.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth after gunmen attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001.

After the Mumbai attacks, India put a “pause” on a five-year-old peace process that had brought warmer ties although it had failed to make progress on their core dispute over the Muslim-majority Kashmir region.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Additional reporting by Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Pakistani investigators find Mumbai link: report | International | Reuters

The deteriorating situation in the former tourist haven comes despite an army offensive that began in 2007 and an attempted peace deal. It is especially worrisome to Pakistani officials because the valley lies outside the areas where al Qaeda and Taliban militants have traditionally operated and where the military is staging a separate offensive.

“You can’t imagine how bad it is,” said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. “It’s worse day by day.”

The Taliban activity in northwest Pakistan also comes as the country shifts forces east to the Indian border because of tensions over last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, potentially giving insurgents more space to maneuver along the Afghan frontier.

Militants began preying on Swat’s lush mountain ranges about two years ago, and it is now too dangerous for foreign and Pakistani journalists to visit. Interviews with residents, lawmakers and officials who have fled the region paint a dire picture.

A suicide blast killed 40 people Sunday at a polling station in Buner, an area bordering Swat that had been relatively peaceful. The attack underscored fears that even so-called “settled” regions presumptively under government control are increasingly unsafe.

The 3,500-square-mile Swat Valley lies less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.

A senior government official said he feared there could be a spillover effect if the government lost control of Swat and allowed the insurgency to infect other areas. Like nearly everyone interviewed, the official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by militants.

Officials estimate that up to a third of Swat’s 1.5 million people have left the area. Salah-ud-Din, who oversees relief efforts in Swat for the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimated that 80 percent of the valley is now under Taliban control.

Swat’s militants are led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islamic law. His appeal tapped into widespread frustration with the area’s inefficient judicial system.

Most of the insurgents are easy to spot with long hair, beards, rifles, camouflage vests and running shoes. They number at most 2,000, according to people who were interviewed.

In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas.

They have also set up a parallel administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints, according to lawmakers and officials. And they are suspected of burning scores of girls’ schools.

In mid-December, Taliban fighters killed a young member of a Sufi-influenced Muslim group who had tried to raise a militia against them. The militants later dug up Pir Samiullah’s corpse and hung it for two days in a village square – partly to prove to his followers that he was not a superhuman saint, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

A lawmaker and the senior Swat government official said business and landowners had been told to give two-thirds of their income to the militants. Some local media reported last week that the militants have pronounced a ban on female education effective in mid-January.

Several people interviewed said the regional government made a mistake in May when it struck a peace deal with the militants. The agreement fell apart within two months but let the insurgents regroup.

The Swat insurgency also includes Afghan and other fighters from outside the valley, security officials said.

Any movement of Pakistani troops from the Swat Valley and tribal areas to the Indian border will concern the United States and other Western countries, which want Pakistan to focus on the al Qaeda threat near Afghanistan.

On Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said thousands of troops were being shifted toward the border with India, which blames Pakistani militants for terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month that killed 164 people. But there has been no sign yet of a major buildup near India.

“The terrorists’ aim in Mumbai was precisely this – to get the Pakistani army to withdraw from the western border and mount operations on the east,” said Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and author who has written extensively about militancy in the region.

“The terrorists are not going to be sitting still. They are not going to be adhering to any sort of cease-fire while the army takes on the Indian threat. They are going to occupy the vacuum the army will create.”

Residents and officials from the Swat Valley were critical of the army offensive there, saying troops appeared to be confined to their posts and often killed civilians when firing artillery at suspected militant targets.

The military has deployed some 100,000 troops through the northwest.

A government official familiar with security issues estimated that some 10,000 paramilitary and army troops had killed 300 to 400 militants in Swat since 2007, while about 130 troops were killed. Authorities have not released details of civilian casualties, and it was unclear if they were even being tallied.

The official, who insisted on anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, disputed assertions that militants had overrun the valley, but said a spotty supply line was hampering operations. He said the army had to man some Swat police stations because the police force there had been decimated by desertions and militant killings.

A Swat militant boasted that “we are doing our activities wherever we want, and the army is confined to their living places.”

“They cannot move independently like us,” said the man, who was reached over the phone and gave his name as Muzaffarul Haq. He claimed the Swat militants had no al Qaeda or foreign connections, but that they supported all groups that shared the goal of imposing Islamic law.

“With the grace of Allah, there is no dearth of funds, weapons or rations,” he said. “Our women are providing cooked food for those who are struggling in Allah’s path. Our children are getting prepared for jihad.”

CBS News