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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan came under renewed US pressure on Thursday to deal with militants on its soil, as India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it the "epicentre of terrorism."
Islamabad appeared to respond to growing international disapproval of Jamaat-ud-Dawa - widely regarded as the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attacks - by arresting senior figures and freezing the organisation's assets.
India ruled out military action against Pakistan following the carnage in its financial centre, but said its neighbour needed to do more to combat militancy.
The comments added to the intense international pressure already on the Pakistani government as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte became the latest senior US figure to travel to Islamabad for security talks.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani emerged from a meeting with Negroponte saying the country would comply with its international obligations to act against Jamaat-ud-Dawa after it was listed by the United Nations as a terror group.
Hours later, police began closing the charity's offices.
Pakistan also ordered that the assets of Jamaat-ud-Dawa be frozen and placed senior officials including the group's leader, Hafiz Saeed, under house arrest.
The moves came as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament there was "irrefutable proof" the attacks were planned in Pakistan but ruled out military action against its neighbour.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain and the attacks have severely strained relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
In an earlier statement to parliament, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram announced wide-reaching reforms to security laws and national infrastructure aimed at preventing future terror assaults in India.
They include plans to fix intelligence lapses and "logistical weakness" that emerged during the 60-hour siege in which 172 people died, including nine gunmen.
Among the measures is the setting up of 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terror schools for training commandos.
"We cannot go back to business as usual," Chidambaram added, appealing to Indians to be "brave and united."
The sole surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman , was remanded in custody on Thursday and faces charges including "making war against the country" and murder, Mumbai police crime branch chief Rakesh Maria said.
Iman, identified by Indian authorities as a Pakistani national, was one of 10 heavily armed Islamist militants who attacked targets across the financial capital, including two luxury hotels and the main railway station.
He was arrested on the first evening of the assaults, which turned Mumbai into a battle zone between November 26 and 29.
According to police, Iman, from the Pakistani province of Punjab, took part in the 20-minute killing spree at the railway station that left some 80 people there dead.
Police have not revealed where Iman was being held but magistrates and court officials on Thursday made a brief visit to the detention block of the Mumbai police headquarters.
Indian officials say the militants were trained and sent to Mumbai by Lashkar-e-Taiba - a Pakistan-based group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Under intense international pressure, Pakistan last weekend arrested 15 people in a raid on a camp run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Pakistan's Gilani has said authorities have arrested two senior LeT members - Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, both named in India as suspected planners of the Mumbai attacks.
Indian press has reported that Iman had revealed that Lakhvi selected and trained the 10 attackers, who he said had set out from Karachi after scouting their targets on the Internet using mapping site Google Earth. - AFP/de
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