Afghan Envoy to US: ISI linked to Mumbai attacks

Calls were placed from a satellite phone left behind by the attackers to ‘people who were known ISI members or had very strong ties with the ISI,’ Afghanistan's Ambassador to the US T Jawad told the ‘Wall Street Journal’.

Jawad also said there is evidence linking Yusuf Muzammil, the man identified by India as the attacks' chief organiser, to the ISI, but did not provide details.

Meanwhile, the ‘Journal’ in an analytical piece said the US's insistence that Pakistan take strong action against those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks has ‘aligned’ Washington more closely with the Indian position, but it is unlikely to coax Islamabad to oblige.

"The US is calling on Pakistan to arrest and turn over to India at least some of the suspects in the Mumbai terrorist bombing, aligning the US more closely with a key Indian position," the ‘Journal’ said.

The Indian Government is under a lot of pressure from the public for not doing more to prevent this attack, the paper said quoting an unnamed diplomat.

"And they need for their political purposes to point to something demonstratively that's been done,” the diplomat said, adding, ‘an arrest by Pakistan is a big statement. Ideally there'd be some sort of extradition to India.’

US officials were also quoted as saying that many of the 20 people sought by India from Pakistan aren't linked to the Mumbai attacks and New Delhi shouldn't force Islamabad into a position where it can't make concessions.