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US maintains pressure on Mumbai Dozens held in Pakistan crackdown
(about 5 hours later)
Senior US envoy John Negroponte has arrived in Delhi from Islamabad as the US continues to tackle what it admits is a "dangerous situation" over Mumbai. Police in Pakistan have arrested dozens of members of an Islamic charity the UN has listed a terrorist organisation in the wake of the Mumbai killings.
The US embassy in Delhi was tight-lipped over Mr Negroponte's trip but it has coincided with Pakistani action on those accused in the attacks. Members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been held across the country. India says it is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group it says was behind the attacks.
Pakistan has frozen the assets of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa group, which the UN has now listed as a terrorist organisation. Last month's attacks on Mumbai left more than 170 people dead.
Pakistan denies any involvement in the Mumbai attacks that killed 173 people. A key US envoy, John Negroponte, is in Delhi to tackle what the US still says is a "dangerous situation".
It has again complained that India has not met its request to share intelligence information. Separately, the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, said it had tracked down the father of the sole surviving suspect in the attacks, quoting the man as saying he had been "in denial" but had now accepted his son, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, was the man being held.
'Epicentre of terrorism' In Mumbai itself, thousands of people joined hands on the streets on Friday to symbolise their unity in the aftermath of the attacks.
Mr Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, is the second key US visitor to the region after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's high-profile trip last week. Legal challenge
Despite our requests, no evidence or information has been shared with the government by India so far Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistani Foreign Minister class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7778326.stm">Kashmiri views on militant group class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7765875.stm">Peaceful school or 'terror' base? class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7753863.stm">Mumbai: A Pakistan militant link? Police say that members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been detained in Sindh, Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where the charity is reported to be especially active.
Mr Negroponte is to meet Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and is also likely to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal Amir Kasab class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7778326.stm">Kashmiri views on militant group class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7765875.stm">Peaceful school or 'terror' base? class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7753863.stm">Mumbai: A Pakistan militant link? class="" href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/7779150.stm">Minister opposes cricket tour
A senior US official said the envoy would convey Pakistan's desire to co-operate on the issue. Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told the AFP news agency that more than 40 people had been detained and 30 Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices had been sealed.
Mr Negroponte's trip has been more low-key than Ms Rice's but the US has said it still has "deep concern" over the issue. A spokesman for the charity in NWFP said that 150 people had been arrested and 42 offices closed.
Ms Rice told CNBC that she had heard "no bellicose talk" on her visit and that this was a "better situation" than when the two nations came close to war after the militant attack on India's parliament in 2001. Pakistan Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said it had responded to the UN move because "we are part of the international community and cannot afford confrontation with the whole world".
But she added: "It is obviously a dangerous situation, and Pakistan needs to act and act forcefully. Hundreds of people meanwhile rallied outside the UN office in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, to chant anti-US and anti-Indian slogans in protest over the closure.
"I think the Indians rightly were concerned to make sure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," she said. The Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who also founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, was put under house arrest on Thursday. He has strongly denied the allegations against him.
As Mr Negroponte visited Islamabad on Thursday, Pakistan began closing the offices of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, after it was put on the UN blacklist. Tens of thousands of people took part in a human chain in Mumbai
Its leader, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who also founded the now-banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India says planned and carried out the attacks, was put under house arrests.
The group's assets have been frozen, a senior government official said.The group's assets have been frozen, a senior government official said.
Mr Singh has called Pakistan the "epicentre of terrorism" and Mr Mukherjee said there was "irrefutable proof" that the attacks on Mumbai were planned in Pakistan. However the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says that crucially the government has not yet formally banned the group, leading to accusations from some critics that it is reluctant to move it against it too quickly.
But Pakistan has again complained it has not been given information on the attacks. Mr Saeed's son, Mohammad Talha Saeed, said a legal challenge would be mounted in Pakistan's courts and possibly the International Court of Justice against the move to close the charity.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: "Our own investigations cannot proceed beyond a certain point without provision of credible information and evidence pertaining to the Mumbai attacks. "There is no moral or legal justification for this action," he said.
"Despite our requests, no evidence or information has been shared with the government by India so far. 'No bellicose talk'
Overhaul In Delhi, Mr Negroponte was meeting Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and probably Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a day after a visit to Islamabad.
In an interview with the BBC, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed vigorously denied claims that he had connections with the Mumbai attackers. class="" href="/1/hi/uk/7769893.stm">
"We don't have any office [that] develops terrorists, do terrorist activities. I preach religion," he said. Indian media reported that Mr Negroponte had handed over to Pakistan a list of organisations it wanted action taken against.
Mr Saeed officially quit the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001 to become head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Pakistan said it was taking action but Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi complained that "despite our requests, no evidence or information has been shared with [Pakistan's] government by India so far".
Meanwhile, India on Thursday announced a major overhaul of its security and intelligence services. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNBC she had heard "no bellicose talk" on her own visit to the two nations last week but added: "It is obviously a dangerous situation, and Pakistan needs to act and act forcefully."
Newly-appointed Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the measures would include:
    class="bulletList">
  • Reinforcing coastal security
  • Creating a new national investigative agency
  • Improving police training and strengthening anti-terror laws
In the Dawn article, the man who says he is Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab's father is quoted as saying: "I was in denial for the first couple of days, saying to myself it could not have been my son... Now I have accepted it.
"This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal," Amir Kasab said.
The paper said he was speaking from Faridkot, a village close to Deepalpur in Punjab province.
Amir Kasab said his son left four years ago, adding: "He had asked me for new clothes on Eid that I couldn't provide him. He got angry and left."
Meanwhile in Mumbai, organisers said that between 85,000 and 100,000 people linked in human chains at various locations - including the two hotels and main railway station that were attacked.
Organiser Dolphy D'Souza said: "The key purpose was to send a message that out of this despair and anguish... we are united, we want peace and nobody can create any wedge or difference to divide us. We are Indians first and last."