ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan on Tuesday forcefully denied a suggestion by India’s prime minister that official Pakistani agencies were involved in November’s attacks in the city of Mumbai and said that leveling such accusations posed “grave risks” to the region.
With this latest exchange of sharp words, tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors appeared to be spiking. In the weeks since the three-day rampage by gunmen in India’s commercial capital, the two sides have made alternately conciliatory and bellicose comments.
Last month, Pakistan repositioned some troops along the Indian border and said India had activated forward air bases, but most analysts said they did not believe the two sides intended to go to war.
Tuesday’s statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the closest India has come to accusing the Pakistani government of links to the attacks, which the Indians blame on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. U.S. intelligence supports the view that the group was largely responsible.
Pakistan has acknowledged that “non-state actors” might have played a role in the Mumbai assault but has denied official involvement of any kind, although Lashkar-e-Taiba has a history of ties to Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus.
Singh, without offering details, declared in New Delhi that “given the sophistication and military precision of the attack, it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan.”
Pakistan blasted that assertion as “irresponsible.” The Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “Vilifying Pakistan or . . . any of its state institutions on this score is unwarranted and unacceptable. This is a sure way to close avenues of cooperation in combating this menace.”
India on Monday handed over a 100-page dossier of evidence against the Mumbai suspects, including transcripts described as the confession of the lone surviving gunman and documentation of the attackers’ phone communications with Pakistan-based handlers.
Pakistani officials brushed aside the claims in the dossier. Deputy Foreign Minister Malik Emaad Khan described it as “so-called evidence.”
