US Urges Pakistan to Cooperate With Mumbai Investigation

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is calling on Pakistan to fully cooperate with the Indian investigation into the Mumbai massacre. For VOA, Tom Rivers reports from London.

In London, on a shortened trip to Europe to accommodate a visit to India later this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. has told Pakistan that it expects clear, transparent cooperation with the Indian investigation into the Mumbai massacre.

"Obviously this is a time when everyone in the civilized world needs to unite not just in condemnation of these terrorist attacks but also in a commitment to be decisive in following up whatever leads there are in making certain that the people who perpetrated these attacks are brought to justice," Rice said.

On Saturday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister said there were absolutely no ties whatsoever between the plotters and any Pakistani state agency.

Secretary of State Rice plans to hold meetings in New Delhi with Indian officials on Wednesday and she plans to offer whatever assistance the U.S. can provide.

"We will be working with India. We intend to work with Pakistan as well," she said. "The people who perpetrated this must be brought to justice and ultimately the terrorists have to be stopped because they will keep trying to bring down the civilized values and the civilized world as long as they are not challenged. And that means challenging them and resolutely going after them is the only choice that we have."

Six American were among the more than 170 people who died in the Mumbai attacks. The United States has already dispatched a team of investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to India to provide whatever assistance they can.

Speaking along with Secretary Rice at Monday's joint news conference in London was British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who says his country will do whatever it can to calm tensions now between nuclear neighbors, Pakistan and India.

"The stakes are very high indeed," Miliband noted. "They are stakes that we determined to work with the Indian and Pakistani authorities separately but they also need the Indian and Pakistani authorities to work together and that is real responsibilities for both sides, quite demanding on both sides to chase down the people who have perpetrated this atrocity."

A previously unknown group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.