Pakistan says Mumbai attacks partly planned on its soil

Pakistan has acknowledged for the first time that some of the planning for November's deadly attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai occurred on its soil, and said most of the suspects had been arrested.

"Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan," Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said at a news conference Thursday.

Investigators had traced a boat engine used by the militants to get to India from Pakistan, he said, adding they had also traced two hideouts of the suspects near the city of Karachi.

A criminal case had been opened in Pakistan against eight suspects on charges of "abetting, conspiracy and facilitation" of a terrorist act, Malik said.

Six of those suspects were in custody, he said, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, leaders of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba — named by India as the masterminds of the attack — and an unnamed person who sent an email claiming responsibility for the attacks. But Malik stressed that Pakistan needed more evidence from India in order to secure convictions.

Among the additional information sought are the fingerprints of the 10 gunmen, the DNA of the lone survivor and details of intercepted phone conversations between the militants and their handlers.

Pakistan said it had passed on information about its investigation to India. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in New Delhi he had no immediate reaction.

Increasing tension between India, Pakistan

Tensions between India and Pakistan have increased steadily since the attacks, in which gunmen targeted 10 sites in Mumbai in an assault that began Nov. 26, killing around 170 people, including two Canadians. India has blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.

India has said all 10 gunmen who carried out the attacks were Pakistani. Islamabad, which initially denied any Pakistanis were responsible for the attacks, later acknowledged the sole attacker captured alive was a Pakistani national.

India has demanded that any suspects arrested as part of an investigation be turned over, but Pakistan has said it will try any suspects in its own courts.

Until Thursday, Pakistan had refused to say that any part of the attacks had been planned in Pakistan.