Pakistan authorities have obtained confessions from members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba that they were involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, a Pak official said. These confessions will put pressure on Pak leaders but after weeks of stonewalling, it seems clear that Islamabad may use its investigation to make the case that the Mumbai attackers were not part of a conspiracy carried out with the spy agency, known as the ISI, but that the militants were operating on their own and outside the control of government agents.

US and British officials and Indian investigators have said for weeks that their intelligence clearly points to the involvement of Lashkar. That evidence

has been deeply uncomfortable for Pakistan, whose

ISI helped create, finance and train Lashkar in the 1980s to fight a proxy war in Kashmir.

The most talkative of the senior Lashkar leaders being interrogated is said to be Zaraar Shah, the Pak official said. US intelligence officials say they believe that Shah, the group’s communications chief, served as a conduit between Lashkar and the ISI. His close ties to the agency and his admission of involvement in the attacks are sure to be unsettling for the government and its spy agency. An operational leader of Lashkar, Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, is also said to be cooperating with investigators. News of Shah’s confession was reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“These guys showed no remorse,” said the Pak official. “They were bragging. They didn’t need to be pushed, tortured or waterboarded,” into making their statements. The confessions made no mention of any involvement by the Pakistani government, said the official, who added, “They talk about people acting on their own.”

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