India Says Pakistan Aided Planner of Mumbai Attacks

NEW DELHI — India’s home minister on Wednesday said there was new evidence of Pakistani state support for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, citing information provided by Abu Jindal, an Indian man suspected of being one of the planners.

The Indian authorities say that Abu Jindal, who was recently captured by the Indian police, and five others guided the Mumbai attacks from a “control room” in Karachi, Pakistan. The Indian authorities say they have recordings of phone conversations during the attack that included Mr. Jindal’s voice.

At a news conference in Tiruananthpuram, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said that Mr. Jindal confirmed during an interrogation that he was in the Karachi control room that had given orders to the 10 gunmen who killed more than 160 people in a three-day attack on multiple locations in Mumbai in 2008.

“Some state support was there for these people,” Mr. Chidambaram said, referring to men in the control room with Mr. Jindal. And he claimed that Mr. Jindal had identified some of those other men.

“The way we are going has put us in a good light and put Pakistan in a bad light,” he added. “It is Pakistan which is under pressure and not India.” Pakistan has repeatedly rejected Indian accusations that its top military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, was involved in the attacks, which are thought to have been carried out by the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

On Wednesday, Rehman Malik, a senior adviser to the Pakistani president on interior issues, denied the new charges. “Why are you blaming Pakistan?” he said at a news conference. “He is your citizen. You fail to control your citizen.”

Pakistan warned India three years ago that it had its “own Taliban,” Mr. Malik said. “See the result. I wish best of luck to India.”

Indian intelligence experts said that the arrest of Abu Jindal was even more significant than that of Ajmal Qasab, the last known surviving attacker.

Ajit Doval, former chief of India’s Intelligence Bureau, said: “Abu Jindal is more important because he is the eyewitness in what happened in Pakistan during the attack and about preparations. He is a planner, organizer, motivator and trainer. Qasab is only a one-event man.”