Seven suspects arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai, India, attacks of last year will be charged in their next court appearance, a Pakistani official said Saturday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the suspects’ next court appearance will occur shortly after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which ends on September 26. Malik, who was speaking in a Saturday night news conference, did not specify the exact date. Eid celebrates the end of Ramadan. The suspects include Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, which killed more than 160 people, as well as Umar Abdul Wajid, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jameel Ahmed, Mohammad Younus Anjum, Mazhar Iqbal and Hammad Amin Sadiq. The Mumbai attacks were carried out in November 2008 by 10 armed men — nine of whom were killed.
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India has accused banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba for orchestrating the attacks and pressured Pakistan to arrest the group’s founder Hafiz Saeed. Malik said India needs to provide “authentic evidence” that Saeed was involved in the attacks before authorities arrest him. The interior minister said investigators have recovered a boat he said the attackers used to travel to Mumbai, and added that authorities had also located several of the attackers’ hideouts and identified bank accounts that Malik said were associated with the operation.
