India may hand over Kasab's DNA to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday considered handing over a second dossier of evidence on the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan, hours after Islamabad gave in to international pressure and said action would be taken against all those involved in the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan went so far as to welcome Indian authorities to help with its probe, having admitted that India had provided evidence of involvement of Pakistani elements in the terror attacks.

"All the culprits (involved in 26/11) must be apprehended. Who will support such acts," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said in Lahore. On Saturday, Malik had backtracked on the veracity of Indian evidence���after various Pakistani leaders had summarily dismissed the Indian dossier as just information, Malik said it contained enough proof to start a probe.

Malik said Pakistan's investigations into the "heinous" attacks were being conducted under the country's laws but Indian investigators would "be more than welcome" to help in the probe. "Pakistan is very open and the inquiry officers have been bestowed with full powers to fulfil their task," Malik said.

As part of the second dossier, India is likely to pass on the DNA sample of lone arrested terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab for verification by Pakistani authorities. It will also name Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah as conspirators of the Mumbai carnage and furnish details as to how they planned the attacks and trained the attackers.

Sources said the DNA sample of Kasab, which has already been collected by the investigators as part of efforts to prove that he is a Pakistani national, will enable Pakistani authorities to match the sample with his father and establish his Pakistani identity. The sample was not given to Pakistan when the first dossier was handed over to it on January 5 as India was not sure whether Islamabad would pursue the leads given.

On Saturday, France had added its voice to the growing number of countries which said the dossier was "perfectly credible" and urged Pakistan to take action based on the inputs provided.

India had, meanwhile, refused to relax the pressure on Islamabad, maintaining that it wanted "verifiable action". It wasted no time in quelling any perception that it had relented on its demand for the custody of 26/11 perpetrators and could now settle for their "fair trial" in Pakistan.

If anything, the UPA government, with looming Lok Sabha polls, may feel constrained to scale up the diplomatic offensive and downgrade ties with Islamabad. Home minister P Chidambaram had even indicated that trade and transport ties could be scaled back. While no decision on this has been taken yet, the Congress core group, in its meeting on Friday, was pretty clear that it would have to take the drastic step if Pakistan did not relent.

A continued toughening is also necessitated by the threat that the BJP might up its ante in the event of Pakistan not helping to bring perpetrators of 26/11 to book.

The principal opposition had till now maintained restraint on the issue and desisted from criticising the government but it seems to be chafing at the self-control. On Friday, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley chided the government for its flip-flop over where the 26/11 accused would be tried.