India, Pak standoff will intensify if no Pakistani is handed over

Islamabad, Dec.13 (ANI): Observers on affairs in South Asia have warned that the standoff between Pakistan and India might intensify in the wake of Islamabad's categorical refusal to hand-over its suspect citizens to India.

With Pakistan saying that it will not hand over any Pakistani wanted in connection with last month's terror strikes in Mumbai, tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors will exacerbate.

Sources said that both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have decided that the government would take action against any Pakistani individual found to have been involved in the Mumbai attacks.

New Delhi, on the other hand, has urged Islamabad to hand over people belonging to the outlawed Lashkar-i-Toiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, recently banned under a United Nations resolution.

India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said his country had provided a list of 40 people, and not two as Pakistan has been stating, suspected of being involved in the Mumbai killings. (ANI)