Bangladesh linked to Mumbai attacks

Pakistan's investigation of the Mumbai terrorist attacks has uncovered evidence that the Commando-style attack on India's financial capital, was planned in Bangladesh, and refined in India, according to a senior official. Pakistan is expected Excisable Bangladesh names from the investigation's final report when it is published in the coming days to avoid opening old rivalries between the two countries. Pakistan has had cool relations with Bangladesh since a 1971 civil war that divided Bangladesh from Pakistan.

But a senior Pakistani government official yesterday said: "Bangladesh is obviously named [in the draft report], as the country where the attacks were planned, we have no doubt." The results will be made public earlier this week, but publication is delayed. The condition is likely to confuse India and the international community, which has said evidence about the November attack points for the operation is launched from Pakistan. The international community has urged Pakistan to take steps to prosecute militants suspected of masterminding the operation, and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

Shivshankar Menon, India's foreign minister, this week explicitly linked Pakistan's spy agency for the attack, which India blame on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group with historic ties to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Pakistan's Dawn newspaper yesterday reported that the Pakistani Investigator was closing a Bangladeshi connection to the attacks. The report further said that some of the plans for the attack happened in Dubai, and that there had been an element of Indian support. Pakistani government official who spoke to The Financial Times said: "It was too early to Dubai. But it is clear that this plot was put together in Bangladesh, and refined in Indian soil." The attacks have strained relations between India and Pakistan. Suggestions from the Pakistani link dynamics, after it was revealed that Ajmal Kasab is lone survivor of the ten Mumbai Gunma, was a Pakistani national. But Pakistani authorities have tried to play down any link.