India demands Pakistan sign of faith

Matthias Williams
Reuters
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2008

India demanded Pakistan hand over 20 of its most wanted men in a sign of good faith on Tuesday as diplomatic efforts to head off a confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals over the Mumbai attacks intensified.

The demand was contained in a protest note handed to Pakistan's High Commissioner Shahid Malik in New Delhi on Monday, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

"We have in our demarche (diplomatic steps) asked for the arrest and hand-over of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitive of Indian law," he said, adding about 20 people were on the list.

The Times of India and television channels reported the men included Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai underworld leader, and Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani Muslim cleric freed from jail in India in exchange for passengers on a hijacked plane.

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The foreign ministry said on Monday that Malik had been told that "Pakistan's actions needed to match the sentiments expressed by its leadership that it wishes to have a qualitatively new relationship with India."

Pakistan said it would respond to the demand soon.

"We have to look at it formally once we get it (the note) and we will frame a response," Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters in Islamabad.

Mukherjee later said India was not considering military action in response to last week's Mumbai attacks.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa was in New Delhi on a scheduled visit on Tuesday while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive on Wednesday.

India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the attacks in India's financial capital that killed 183 people.

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