MUMBAI/ ISLAMABAD (AlArabiya.net, Reuters)
Indian police said on Saturday that they had arrested two men suspected of supplying mobile phone cards to the gunmen who carried out the Mumbai attacks.
"We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai," Jawed Shamim, the deputy commissioner of detectives in Kolkata said.
" We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai " Jawed Shamim--deputy commissioner If the men are involved, it would be further evidence of Indian complicity in the three-day rampage New Delhi has blamed on Islamists from neighboring Pakistan.
In February police arrested an Indian citizen, Faim Ansari, who was carrying maps of Mumbai that highlighted several of the targets later hit in the attack.
At least 171 people were killed in the attacks last week in which 10 gunmen struck two luxury hotels and other landmarks across India's financial capital.
Airports in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai remained on high alert for a fourth day on Saturday, with extra security personnel deployed after India's civil aviation authority said it had received intelligence that attacks could be planned. |
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Prank call rattles Pakistan Pakistan put its forces on high alert after a hoax caller pretending to be India's foreign minister spoke to President Asif Ali Zardari in a threatening manner on Nov. 28, two days after the militant attacks on Mumbai began, the Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.
"It's true," a diplomat with knowledge of the exchanges told Reuters when asked whether the newspaper report was correct.
The caller ignored Zardari's conciliatory language and directly threatened to take military action if Pakistan failed to act immediately against the supposed perpetrators of the slaughter in Mumbai.
Throughout the next 24 hours Pakistan's air force was put on "highest alert" as the military watched anxiously for any sign of Indian aggression, the report said.
"War may not have been imminent, but it was not possible to take any chances," Dawn quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.
The caller was put through to Zardari because some senior members of the presidential staff decided to bypass standard procedures, including verification of the caller and involvement of diplomatic missions. |
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Calling Rice Dawn reported that the caller, posing as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also tried to telephone U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but due to specific checks by U.S. officials the call was not put through.
The episode triggered intense international diplomacy, with some world leaders fearing India and Pakistan could slip into an accidental war, the newspaper said, sourcing its report to unnamed diplomatic, political and security officials.
The two countries, which both became nuclear weapons states in 1998, went to the brink of war in 2002 following a militant attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.
According to Dawn, Rice called Mukherjee in the middle of the night to ask why he had adopted such a threatening tone, but he assured her that he never spoke to Zardari.
Mukherjee said his discussions with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had been in New Delhi that day, had been conducted in a cordial manner.
Thereafter there were frantic phone calls between Washington, Islamabad and New Delhi to cool the temperature and by Saturday evening on Nov. 29, calm had been restored.
There was an investigation by both sides to determine who made the call, and it remains unclear whether it was made from India or Pakistan, the newspaper said. |
