‘Eliminate Mumbai terror attack culprits’

NEW DELHI: Stepping up pressure on an increasingly defiant Pakistan, the US has demanded elimination of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks. In a strong message to Islamabad, Washington said it was time Pakistan understood that cooperation was the key to prevent such attacks.

���Let���s find the people responsible, let���s eliminate the groups who were responsible and make sure we do everything we can to prevent India from suffering this kind of attack again. That���s an immediate focus that requires everybody���s cooperation, and when we are through that cooperation, we can also start cooperation on broader things,��� US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia affairs Richard Boucher said in an interview to a radio network.

Making it apparent that the US was not buying Islamabad���s ���there is no proof that the terrorists are Pakistanis��� line, Mr Boucher said: ���There are a lot of issues here and lot of things that should be done. The focus right now is on getting the groups who took this horrible action, who committed these horrible crimes in Bombay.���

Mr Boucher described as unprecedented the closeness between the two sides in the investigation and said the goal was to have Pakistan be able to control its territory and stop these groups from operating. ���We have a lot of means. We need to cooperate with Pakistan. We have investigations going on in India. We have investigations now on the Pakistani side.���