India publishes 'proof' dossier on Mumbai attacks

India dramatically ramped up its diplomatic offensive against Pakistan today, releasing evidence linking "elements" in the neighbouring nuclear-armed state to the Mumbai terror attacks for the first time.

A dossier handed to Pakistan's high commission in Delhi included interceptions of telephone calls made between the ten Mumbai gunmen and their alleged handlers in Pakistan during the attacks. "The commanders in Pakistan are following events on television and are issuing real-time instructions; telling the gunmen to target certain nationalities and religions; to maximise casualties; not to touch Muslims. This is hands-on direction," a senior Indian government official told The Times.

The commands included the order to execute six foreign Jews held at Nariman House, an orthodox Jewish outreach centre, during the Mumbai atrocities, which claimed more than 170 lives in all.

Those giving the orders are alleged to be senior members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terrorist faction that Indian officials believe still has the support of Pakistan's powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They include Zarar Shah, the LeT's communications chief, who has been arrested in Pakistan and is believed to have admitted his role to Pakistani investigators. "He played a major part," Rakesh Maria, the officer in charge of the police investigation in Mumbai, said

The dossier, which has also been passed to diplomats from countries including the UK and US, also includes an alleged confession from Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole Mumbai gunman to be captured alive. He says he is a Pakistani national who was trained for more than a year by the LeT in Pakistan. Details of the terrorists' weapons, GPS navigation systems and satellite and mobile phones are also included.

India expects the dossier to increase international pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the support network used by Islamist militants within its borders, much of which dates back to the CIA's backing of Pakistan-based jihadists against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the Cold War.

India is also demanding that Pakistan hand over several terror suspects linked to the Mumbai attacks. However, Islamabad has already said it would not comply to such a request and may settle for access being given to them by the FBI, which helped compile key parts of the Indian dossier.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: "It is my duty to examine the dossier carefully and be truthful to myself, to my country and the neighbourhood."

However, the file is unlikely to contain much that Pakistan's security services are not already aware of, analysts said. Ajit Doval, a former director of India's Intelligence Bureau, said: "It will not carry anything spectacular; more likely it will contain refinements of information already widely known. In any case, Pakistan already has more than enough evidence to act upon if they are willing."

Publically, Pakistan government officials have said that India has failed to provide proof of the involvement of Pakistani nationals in the Mumbai strikes. However, Pakistan's own investigators have already arrested Mr Shah, of the LeT, who has told them that he was in contact with the gunmen who carried out the attack.

Mr Shah was arrested in December in a raid on a militant camp in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. His detention came as tensions sharply escalated between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai issue. In recent days, both countries have insisted they have no appetite for war but each has pointedly refused to rule out the possibility of conflict.

The Indian dossier falls short of explicitly implicating the Pakistani state in the Mumbai attacks but hints strongly at the involvement of the country's powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which helped create the LeT. Shivshankar Menon, India's foreign secretary, said: "It's hard to believe that something of this scale that took so long in preparation ... could occur without anybody anywhere in the [Pakistani] establishment knowing that this was happening."

Over the weekend, P Chidambaram, the Home Minister, said that the dossier was "unanswerable. No one in his right mind can give answer to this evidence." He also pointed a finger at the ISI. He said:

"Somebody who is familiar with intelligence and somebody who is familiar with commando operations has directed this operation. And that can not be entirely a non-state actor."