Hand over Kasab to us: Pak Minister tells India

Islamabad: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has once again reiterated Islambad's position that the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai terror attacks, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, should be handed over to them.

In an interview to BBC Urdu, Qureshi said, "If Kasab is Pakistani citizen, India should not have problems in handing him over."

Qureshi said that if Kasab has admitted to his role in the Mumbai terror attacks then he should be tried in Pakistan.

He also urged India to be more flexible on the issue and once again harped on having a joint investigation into the 26/11 terror strikes.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan is committed to its aim of resuming 'composite dialogue' between India and Pakistan and expressed hope that it would take effect soon.

On February 12, Pakistan admitted for the first time that "a part of the conspiracy" related to the Mumbai terror attacks was planned on its soil and that it had arrested six suspects.

But Interior Minister Rehman Malik insisted that the terrorists, who attacked Mumbai in November 2008, were "non-state actors".

Stressing that the Pakistani state had nothing to do with the Mumbai killings, he said, "This is an individual act, act of individuals or non-state actors. Their purpose is to create terror for their own motives. These motives need to be determined. Both India and Pakistan need to work it out."

"A part of the conspiracy has been done in Pakistan," the minister admitted, adding that a first information report (FIR) was registered in Islamabad on Thursday.

The FIR number is 01/2009 and it was lodged in the Special Investigating Unit in Samba.

"The alleged mastermind has been located and is under investigation," Malik said. He added that a total of six men had been arrested in Pakistan for their links with the Mumbai massacre.

Any Pakistani who directs, conspires or does an act of terrorism abroad would deemed to have committed the acts in Pakistan, he stated.

Pakistani had initially sought to deny any links with the 10 terrorists who sailed to Mumbai by sea from Pakistan on November 26 and then went on a killing spree that lasted three days.

Nine of the terrorists were killed and only Kasab was captured. India said the terrorists were linked to the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tiba (LeT), which has reportedly had close links with the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.