Pressure mounting on Centre to be tough with Pakistan after Mumbai attacks

New Delhi, Dec 2 : Various organizations in the country on Tuesday continued to mount pressure on the Centre to act tough with Pakistan in the wake of reports of alleged involvement of its elements in last weeks Mumbai terror attacks.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists staged a protest in New Delhi today demanding scrapping of all relations with Pakistan.

"We request the government of India that keeping any kind of relations with Pakistan, be it social, political or economical are anti-national. Train and bus service should be immediately stopped. This is in the interest of the nation," said Mahant Naval Kishire Das, an activist of VHP.

In another protest in the national capital the activists of All India Muslim Unity Front and Students' Youth Non-aligned Movement jointly urged the Central Government to destroy terror camps in Pakistan.

"India should attack and destroy all the terrorist camps in Pakistan, the same way America has done in Afghanistan," said Subhash Chaudhary, an activist of Students' Youth Non-aligned Movement.

India has asked Pakistan to hand over 20 of its most wanted men as a sign of good faith while both sides tried to cool tensions over the Mumbai terror attacks that have threatened to damage improving ties.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said military action was not being considered and his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi offered a joint probe to find the militants responsible for a three-day rampage that killed at least 197 people in Mumbai.

"India renewed its demand for men it has hunted for years in a protest note handed to Pakistan's High Commissioner Shahid Malik in New Delhi on Monday," Mukherjee told reporters.

Officials said the list included Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai underworld don, and Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani Muslim cleric freed from jail in India in exchange for passengers on a hijacked plane.

India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the Mumbai terror attacks.

Ibrahim, India's most wanted man is reported to be living in Pakistan. He is wanted for bomb attacks in Mumbai in 1993 that killed at least 250 people.

Reports have said his henchmen in the city could have also provided some support in the latest strike.

Britain's top military officer warned the tensions between India and Pakistan could set back Islamabad's offensive against Islamist Taliban and al-Qaeda militants along the Afghan border.

Indian investigating agencies have said the Mumbai attackers had months of commando training in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, blamed for a 2001 attack on Indian parliament. Ibrahim is said to be one of its financers.

ANI