MOSCOW (AFP)--The militants who have killed over 100 people in Mumbai have links to the Islamist militant network al-Qaida, a top Russian security official told the RIA Novosti state news agency Thursday.
"The Russian secret services have information that certain groups that have carried out attacks in Mumbai have contacts with al-Qaida," said the official, identified as a senior source at one of Russia's spy agencies.
"This includes the Lashkar-i-Tayyiba terrorist group. Fighters from this group undergo special training in al-Qaida camps, located on the border between Pakistan and India," the official was quoted as saying.
Earlier Thursday a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, one of several groups fighting Indian rule in the border province of Kashmir, denied it was involved in the attacks.
The Russian official told RIA Novosti that Moscow had passed information about the threat from Lashkar-i-Tayyiba to New Delhi but it had been ignored.
"Unfortunately, the Indians, at least until now, considered this merely a bandit group. In their opinion it was engaged in a territorial dispute in the region adjacent to Pakistan," he said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said forces "outside the country" were behind the coordinated attacks on luxury hotels and other high-profile targets in the country's financial hub of Mumbai.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 27, 2008 09:49 ET (14:49 GMT)

Publié le 27 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones