Mumbai Attacks Strain India-Pakistan Relations

December 1, 2008 5:56 a.m. EST

Mumbai, India (AHN) - The bloody 60-hour siege in Mumbai, India that has left 179 people killed and nearly 300 injured, has strained the already shaky relation between Pakistan and India, as Indian authorities links its rival neighbor to the massacre.

Islamabad has persistently denied any role in the attacks and called on India to present any proof, as it vowed to give its cooperation into the investigation.

Indian authorities said that the lone suspect captured among the 10 gunmen was a Pakistani who claimed to have been trained by the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group that has links with the al-Qaida and was banned in 2002.

India suspects that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was formed by the Pakistani intelligence in the 1990s to launch attacks against Indian interests in the disputed northern Kashmir region.

The Indian government has announced it is planning to suspend the five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan.

Pakistan said its military is ready for any escalation of tension with India and said it may pull-out its forces from the Afghan border to prepare for any conflict.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan will preside over a national security conference on December 2 to assess the situation in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks and the possible escalation of conflict with his nuclear neighbor.

Expected to attend are political and military leaders to discuss strategy in dealing with the situation.