Pakistan may allow Indian investigators to “grill” the Mumbai attack suspects after being provided with “sufficient evidence” of their involvement, but will not hand them over to New Delhi, a media report said here on Sunday. At a press conference in Multan, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also made it clear that there was no question of extraditing any of the terror suspects to India.

“At the most, Pakistan could permit the Indians to grill the people now under detention and being blamed by New Delhi for a key role in the Mumbai carnage. However, there is no likelihood that they will be handed over to India,” a senior unnamed Pakistani official was quoted as saying by The Nation.

There can be no comparison between Pakistan’s extradition of terror suspects to the US and India’s demand for handing over of persons linked to the Mumbai attacks, Qureshi said. “We have a treaty with the US, we do not have an extradition treaty with India. Please do not compare,” he said.

Qureshi’s statement was made on the eve of US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher’s visit to Islamabad, and coincided with a report in UK daily The Sunday Times that the FBI has given to Pakistan evidence of involvement of elements based in that country in the Mumbai strikes.

This evidence apparently includes Pakistan-based handlers of terrorists warning them about the arrival of Indian commandos while watching the mayhem live on TV, The Sunday Times said.

Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, and its communications specialist Zarar Shah are among the militants detained in Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan has turned down repeated demands from India to hand them over, insisting that New Delhi first provide proof of their involvement.

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