Rice arrives in India to ease tension with Pakistan

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Rice arrives in India to ease tension with Pakistan By Sue Pleming Sue Pleming – 29 mins ago


Play Video Video: Rice calls for united stand against terror BBC Play Video Video: India demands Pakistan hands over fugitives Australia 7 News Play Video Video: Damage Control FOX News AP – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, waves to media as she arrives at Palam technical airport … NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday as part of urgent U.S. efforts to ease tension between India and Pakistan that has surged over the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said he doubted Indian claims that the only surviving Islamist gunman out of the 10 who attacked Mumbai was a Pakistani.

At least 183 people were killed in the three-day rampage in India's financial capital that ended on Saturday.

"We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt ... that he's a Pakistani," Zardari told CNN's "Larry King Live," adding that if given evidence his government would take action.

Zardari also signaled he would not accept an Indian demand to hand over 20 of its most wanted men that New Delhi says are living in Pakistan, saying if there was any evidence they would be tried in Pakistan.

Rice made no comments to reporters as she arrived in India.

In other efforts to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, the top U.S. military commander was visiting the region.

India has long said Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act against anti-India militant groups on its soil. The latest attacks are threatening to unravel improving ties between the adversaries, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Organized through text messages, mass emails and Facebook, a large protest is planned in Mumbai on Wednesday evening by residents angry at what they see as a massive government security failure. One email called the demonstration an "expression of anger and anguish."

Mumbai's police chief Hasan Gafoor said the attackers had trained for a year or more in commando tactics. Azam Amir Kasav, the only surviving gunman, told investigators he is a Pakistani citizen from Punjab, Gafoor said.

Other investigators have said the gunmen were all Pakistanis, from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said military action was not being considered but later warned that a peace process begun in 2004 was at risk if Pakistan did not act decisively.

"Of course the atmosphere has been vitiated. Can't you see the outrage of the Indian people? Am I to explain it? Every Indian feels hurt, feels injured. Is it a conducive atmosphere?" Mukherjee told CNN/IBN television.

The deterioration could also put U.S. counter-terrorism efforts in the region at risk -- Islamabad has said the tensions may force it to shift troops from operations against al Qaeda militants on the Afghanistan border to the frontier with India.

"EXTREMIST SOPHISTICATION"

Rice cut short a European tour to come to India. She will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is under election-year pressure to craft a muscular response to opposition criticism his ruling Congress party is weak on security.

Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, would also visit the region starting on Wednesday, officials said. They declined to give specific details.

India and Pakistan were on the brink of a fourth war in 2002, just a few years after both demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities, following an attack on India's parliament by Islamist militants.

They pulled back after frantic diplomacy by the United States and other allies.

On Monday, New Delhi renewed a long-standing demand for about 20 fugitives it believes are hiding in Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved from Hindu-majority India in 1947.

Zardari said if India provided proof against the fugitives, Pakistan would let its own judiciary handle the cases.

"If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land and we would sentence them, he said.

Islamabad has said it is battling the same kind of enemy at home. In the past year, hundreds of people have been killed in militant attacks across Pakistan, including a suicide bombing which destroyed the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

U.S. officials say the attacks bear the hallmarks of operations by groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Pakistan-based groups that have fought Indian rule in Kashmir, which is claimed by both nations and the key bugbear in their relations.

(Reporting by New Delhi, Mumbai, Islamabad and Washington bureaux and Adrian Croft in London; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Dean Yates)

P – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, waves to media as she arrives at Palam technical airport …

Rice arrives in India to ease tension with Pakistan - Yahoo! News