NEW DELHI ( 2009-01-06 15:53:05 ) :Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that the Mumbai attacks in November had the support of ‘some agencies’ in Pakistan.

The premier accused Islamabad of using terrorism as an ‘instrument of state policy’ and said Pakistan had in the past also "encouraged and given sanctuary" to militants hostile to India.

"There is enough evidence to show that given the sophistication and military precision of the Mumbai attacks, it must have had the support of some agencies in Pakistan," Singh told a conference in New Delhi.

Singh said the November 26-29 attacks were "clearly carried out" by the banned Pakistan-based militant group.

Singh's statement came a day after New Delhi said that it had handed over evidence linking "elements in Pakistan" to the Mumbai attackers.

The government also said it was launching a major diplomatic offensive to maintain international pressure on Islamabad, which has so far rejected New Delhi's demands to extradite a number of terrorist suspects.

President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the gunmen who stormed India's financial capital were "non-state" actors.

The attacks killed 163 people.



Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2009