Pakistan asks India for Mumbai blasts' evidence

ISLAMABAD, Sep 30 (Reuters) Pakistan today said India shouldn't point fingers without evidence, after Mumbai police blamed Pakistani spies and militants for a series of blasts that killed 186 people in Mumbai on July 11.

''It is baseless, it is irresponsible and (done) out of habit,'' Tasnim Aslam, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, adding that an official statement would be released later.

Tariq Azim Khan, Minister of State for Information, also harked on what he called India's knee-jerk reaction in blaming Pakistan for militant acts when there are several groups running insurgencies there.

''India has always chosen this path of pointing fingers at Pakistan without evidence,'' he said. ''If they have any evidence, they should provide us evidence and we will carry out our investigations.'' The allegations levelled by Mumbai police against Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, coincided with President Pervez Musharraf's return home after nearly three weeks abroad.

Pakistani security put the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba under house arrest several weeks ago. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed quit Lashkar in late 2001, when the militant group was engulfed in controversy over its part in an attack on the Indian parliament.

But Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity he became head of, was branded a terrorist organisation by the United States in April because of its ties to Lashkar. Pakistan has put the charity on a watch list, but has not banned it.

During his time overseas, President Musharraf had to defend the role of the ISI against both Afghan and British insinuations that it was covertly supporting a Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.

Earlier on his trip, President Musharraf agreed with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana to resume a peace process, which India froze following the Mumbai attacks.

Should the Mumbai police allegations again impact the peace process, diplomats say it would be a blow to General Musharraf, who wants a quick resolution of a core dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir in order to shake off criticism from hawks in Pakistan.

''After the successful Havana meeting between General Musharraf and Mr Singh, the Indian authorities should have moved forward instead of opening up a Pandora's Box once again,'' a retired ISI officer commented on condition of anonymity.

Two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since independence in 1947 have been over Kashmir.

REUTERS SHB RN1750