Washington: Pakistani territory was used to stage recent attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, as she again urged Islamabad to help bring perpetrators to justice.
Pakistan has called for India to back up its charges of Pakistani involvement with proof. But in interviews with U.S. television networks, Rice said there was no doubt the militants behind the Mumbai attack had operated from Pakistani soil, although she said probably "non-state" actors were involved.
With Islamabad's ties with Washington as well as with India at stake, Pakistan must take action against the militants, Rice said. Pakistan is a long-time US ally that has received billions in US aid to root out militant groups.
India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the three-day assault on India's commercial capital that killed 171 people, including six Americans. Pakistan has condemned the attacks, denied any involvement by its state agencies and vowed full cooperation in investigations. It has called for evidence from New Delhi about any Pakistani role in the assault.
"I think there's no doubt that Pakistani territory was used, by probably non-state actors," Rice told CNN's Late Edition. She has just returned from a trip to the region to urge cooperation between the old enemies India and Pakistan. They have fought three wars since independence in 1947. "I don't think that there is compelling evidence of involvement of Pakistani officials," she added.
Earlier, in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Rice said that the United States had passed information about the attacks to both India and Pakistan. "I have made it very clear (to Pakistan) that Americans also died in that attack," said Rice, who will leave her job when President George W Bush steps down on January 20. "And that the United States expects the full and complete cooperation of Pakistan, and Pakistani action. And that yes, it is a matter for our relationship," she told Fox.
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