London Investigating Whether 2 Of Mumbai Gunmen Were From UK
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was too early to tell whether any of the attackers were British. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh didn't mention a U.K. link in a telephone conversation Friday.
"We have spoken to Indian authorities at a high level and they have said that there is no evidence that any of the terrorists either captured or dead are British," a foreign ministry spokesman in London said Friday.
According to media reports in the U.K., Indian television news channel NDTV reported that "British citizens of Pakistani origin" were among the attackers who stormed two luxury Mumbai hotels and other key targets Wednesday, leaving up to 155 dead, including some foreign hostages.
Singh said Thursday that those behind the attacks were based "outside the country" - which was widely interpreted as meaning neighboring Pakistan.
Miliband said U.K. detectives, who have already traveled to India, will work with their Indian counterparts to shed light on the source of the coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.
"We obviously will want to work very, very closely with the Indians on that, but it is too early to say whether or not any of them are British," he told Sky News television.
"Obviously, the priority of the Indian authorities is to complete this operation. They can then start identifying who are the terrorists, what is their background."
"At no point has the prime minister of India suggested to me that there is evidence at this stage of any terrorist of British origins," Brown said after his talks with Singh.
"But obviously these are huge investigations that are being done and I think it will be premature to draw any conclusions at all."
Responding to swirling rumors about where the Mumbai militants came from, anti-terror police in northern England issued a statement playing down any local links.
"At this stage we are not in receipt of any intelligence or information linking the events in India to our area," said the Leeds-based Counter Terrorism Unit of West Yorkshire Police
Britain has a large Pakistani-origin population, concentrated in northern England, which came under scrutiny after suicide bombings in London in July 2005. Three of the bombers were from Leeds in West Yorkshire.
Miliband, who visited Pakistan last week, said U.K. investigators would leave no stone unturned.
"In terms of the origins of the attack, the planning of the attack, the groups that were responsible for the attack, that is something we are intensively looking at," said Miliband.
The U.K. sent police experts to Mumbai to help in the investigation the day after the attacks, a measure which the Foreign Office says is usual in such circumstances.
London's Metropolitan Police dispatched a team of forensic and explosive experts to Pakistan, after then-president Pervez Musharraf sought U.K. help following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said London has "no knowledge" of any U.K. links with the Mumbai attackers.
But she said: "We will do anything we can to help Indian authorities through what is obviously a very difficult time.
"We will do what is necessary. At the moment the priority is to support the immediate needs."
Indian commandos were fighting it out inside the city's historic Taj Mahal hotel early Saturday local time, where a tiny group of heavily-armed gunmen where engaged in a fight to the death as the more than 52-hour-old battle entered its final stage.
-Dow Jones Newswires, 201-938-5500
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2008 16:43 ET (21:43 GMT)
Publié le 28 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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