theSun | FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13 2009 7

news without borders

Pakistan unveils
breakthrough, arrests
in Mumbai probe
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was
holding in custody the ringleader
and five other suspects in the con-
spiracy behind a militant attack
that killed 179 people in Mumbai,
the top Pakistani interior ministry
official said yesterday.
“Some part of the conspiracy
has taken place in Pakistan,”
Rehman Malik, adviser to the
prime minister on the interior,
told a news conference, detail-
ing how the gunmen had sailed
from Karachi to carry out the
attack on the Indian financial
capital between Nov 26 and 28.
Malik said six suspects were
in custody and two were known
but still at large.
Pakistani officials shared the
findings of the investigation with
India’s envoy in Islamabad, High
Commissioner Satyabrata Pal,
and the Indian foreign ministry
issued a statement describing
the Pakistani actions as a “posi-
tive development”.
Tensions have been running
high between India and Pakistan
since the attack by 10 gunmen
on Mumbai last November.
India has maintained the
plot was hatched in Pakistan,
and has pressed for forceful fol-
low-up by Pakistani authorities
against militants belonging to
Laskhar-e-Taiba, a jihadi group
it says was responsible.
Pakistan released the long-
awaited results of its investiga-
tion as Richard Holbrooke,
President Barack Obama’s new
special envoy to Pakistan and
Afghanistan, rounded off a four-
day visit to the country.
Holbrooke is on a regional
tour to devise a grand strategy
for stabilising Afghanistan and
eliminating the Al Qaeda threat
in Pakistan.
Tracing telephone calls and
bank transfers had led to the
capture of a key figure in the
conspiracy, Hammad Amin
Sadiq, Malik said.
“He was basically the main
operator,” Malik said, adding
his interrogation led to the raid
on two hideouts, one in the
port city, and one two hours
outside.
“We have located those
locations which were used by
the terrorists before launching
themselves,” Malik said.
“They had some kind of train-
ing, they went into the ocean,”
he said, saying they had sailed
from Karachi.
“Some of the accused who
have been arrested, they have
given us the full rundown.”
Malik said the breakthrough
in the investigation had resulted
from tracing the fishing vessel
used by the militants, purchases
of equipment like life jackets and
the engine for the rubber dinghy
that militants came ashore in in
Mumbai. – Reuters

RAF spokesman confirmed that

two RAF members and two Air
briefs Training Corps cadets had “tragi-
cally died” in the crash. – dpa.

US, Russian satellites

Twelve held after collide in space
China state TV WASHINGTON: US and Russian
complex fire satellites crashed in space, the first
known major accident of its kind, cre-
BEIJING: Twelve people have ating two clouds of debris that were
been detained in connection with being tracked by experts yesterday.
a huge blaze caused by unlicensed A communications satellite
fireworks that partly destroyed belong to US company Iridium hit
Beijing’s hypermodern state tel- a disused Russian military satellite
evision and hotel complex, local on Tuesday, Russian officials said.
media reported yesterday. The collision took place 800 km
The twelve included a senior above the Earth, Russia’s Interfax
China Central Television (CCTV) news agency quoted Maj-Gen Al-
official in charge of construction exander Yakushin, the head of the
of the TV headquarters, the Beijing country’s space forces, as saying.
Times said. It did not say if anyone Nasa was tracking hundreds of
had been charged. particles of debris from the collision,
The fire began on Monday and said the orbiting International
evening, caused by powerful Space Station faced a small risk of
and unlicensed fireworks put on being struck. – AFP
by CCTV, destroying a 30-storey
building just north of the spec-
tacular CCTV tower designed by Killer bug halts bone
Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. marrow transplants
The 30-storey building was home HONGKONG: A top hospital yes-
to the near-completed Mandarin terday suspended bone marrow
Oriental Hotel. – Reuters transplant operations after a
rare infection killed a six-year-
Four die in mid-air old boy and infected two other
collision of RAF patients.
Three other patients at the
training aircraft Queen Mary Hospital are also
LONDON: Two female teenage being tested for the infection
air cadets and two Royal Air which doctors have identified as
Force (RAF) instructors were a rare intestinal disease called
killed in a mid-air collision of gastrointestinal mucormycosis.
two RAF training aircraft in The six-year-old boy died
Britain on Wednesday. 23 days after contracting the
The two light aircraft crashed infection in November and two
over sand dunes in a nature other leukaemia patients – a
reserve in south Wales, in the boy aged 11 and a man aged 38
south-west of Britain, police – were found to be infected in
said. January and February. After the
The two girls, of school age, third infection was confirmed on
were taking part as air training Wednesday, the hospital decided
corps cadets in a half-hour flying to suspend bone marrow trans-
experience offered by the RAF. An plants for a week. – dpa