Pakistan's naval chief Noman Bashir on Friday denied that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving alleged gunmen in the Mumbai attacks, entered India from Pakistani territorial waters.
New Delhi blamed the attacks, which killed 165 people last November, on the militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) and the siege soured a five-year peace process between India and Pakistan.
'We have no evidence whatsoever that Ajmal Kasab had gone to India from Pakistani territorial waters,' Bashir told reporters in Karachi.
He was speaking one day after the top foreign ministry civil servants from India and Pakistan met in Colombo for the first time since the Mumbai attacks and agreed to keep the official channels of communication open.
'The Indian navy is much larger than ours and if Ajmal Kasab had gone from here then what were their coastguards doing and why they did not stop the terrorists?' said the naval commander.
Bashir declined to make further comment.
'There are many questions about the Mumbai attacks which need to be answered and until then we cannot make any comment,' he said.
AFP adds: India rejected on Friday a claim by Pakistan's naval chief that the lone surviving alleged gunmen in the Mumbai attacks did not enter India from Pakistani waters.
Pakistan was engaging in 'multiple speak, duplicity and denial' and had 'created this confusion', India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi.
Sharma said Pakistan had earlier acknowledged that Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman -- also known as Kasab -- and nine other gunmen had arrived in India by sea and that Pakistan was speaking 'in different voices'.
New Delhi blamed the attacks, which killed 165 people last November, on the militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) and the siege soured a five-year peace process between India and Pakistan.
'We have no evidence whatsoever that Ajmal Kasab had gone to India from Pakistani territorial waters,' Bashir told reporters in Karachi.
He was speaking one day after the top foreign ministry civil servants from India and Pakistan met in Colombo for the first time since the Mumbai attacks and agreed to keep the official channels of communication open.
'The Indian navy is much larger than ours and if Ajmal Kasab had gone from here then what were their coastguards doing and why they did not stop the terrorists?' said the naval commander.
Bashir declined to make further comment.
'There are many questions about the Mumbai attacks which need to be answered and until then we cannot make any comment,' he said.
AFP adds: India rejected on Friday a claim by Pakistan's naval chief that the lone surviving alleged gunmen in the Mumbai attacks did not enter India from Pakistani waters.
Pakistan was engaging in 'multiple speak, duplicity and denial' and had 'created this confusion', India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma told reporters in New Delhi.
Sharma said Pakistan had earlier acknowledged that Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman -- also known as Kasab -- and nine other gunmen had arrived in India by sea and that Pakistan was speaking 'in different voices'.
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