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| India-Pakistan |
| More Indian Officials Quit in Aftermath of Attacks |
| 2008-12-02 |
| More top Indian officials resigned Monday in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, while the U.S. and Indian governments stepped up pressure on Pakistan to cooperate in investigating responsibility for a siege that left 174 dead. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, which includes Mumbai, submitted his resignation as an acknowledgement of security failings that allowed the attack to extend over three days, and the ruling Congress Party was expected to accept his offer to step down. Deputy chief minister R.R. Patil resigned earlier on Monday, while Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil had quit the day before. As authorities finished clearing bodies from the devastated Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, FBI forensic teams landed in the country and began visiting the hotel and other of the 10 sites attacked by a band of gunmen. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is en route to the country and said in London that the United States expects "total transparency and cooperation" from Pakistan as the investigation proceeds. The band of 10 attackers is thought to have trained in Pakistan, and the one surviving member of the group belongs to the outlawed Kashmiri guerrilla organization Lashkar-i-Taiba, according to Indian security officials. "What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said, according to the Associated Press. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation, and that's what we expect." India's government, meanwhile, protested what it deemed "the use of Pakistani soil for terrorist activities." The complaint was included in a letter submitted to Pakistan's top diplomat in the country. Indian officials said that they also presented evidence of Lashkar-i-Taiba's involvement in the attacks, and warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if Pakistan did not help fully in the probe. |
| Posted by:Fred |