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Militants could start regional war: Gomez
Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari made an urgent appeal to India on Sunday not to punish his country for the terror unleashed on Mumbai last week, warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

As the government in New Delhi faced mounting domestic recriminations after the three-day terrorist rampage in Mumbai, Zardari urged India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resist striking out at his government should investigations show that Pakistani militant groups were responsible for the attacks.

Zardar warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. "Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari in an interview with the Financial Times.
Not Lashkar-e-Taiba, that's for sure ...
"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari. "Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace."

The Mumbai assaults that killed 195 people bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India. Indian officials said most, perhaps all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan.

The fallout from the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India's commercial center, has threatened to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.
Posted by: Fred 2008-12-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=256391