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ISLAMABAD : Pakistan said Saturday it would "probably" put on trial next week the five accused of involvement in last year's terror attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai which killed 166 people.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals worsened dramatically after the carnage in India's financial capital that New Delhi blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
"The trial of the five accused, who have been arrested, is probably going to start next week," interior minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad after meeting Indian Deputy High Commissioner Manpreet Vohra.
"We are pretty sure that based on the evidence which our investigators have collected, the culprits will be punished," he said.
The announcement came hours after Indian premier Manmohan Singh voiced hope that Pakistan would promise action against those behind the attacks when he meets his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Singh said he also hoped Pakistan would implement a five-year-old pledge not to "allow use of their land to terrorist elements working against India".
The discussions, on the margins of the global summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, will be the second high-level contact between the sides since the Mumbai raids in November.
Malik said the trial against the five accused, including the alleged mastermind Zakiduddin Lakhvi, would be "transparent".
"Investigation is almost complete and we have collected all material evidence," he said.
The minister rejected India's criticism that Pakistan was not serious in carrying out its investigation.
"We were not only serious but very serious in our investigations," he said.
Malik also denied that Pakistan had delayed the investigation, instead blaming New Delhi for the length of time needed to bring suspects to trial.
"The delay took place because of India. We completed our probe in the record 76 days," Malik said, accusing India of taking too long in providing information vital to the investigation, such as a statement from the sole surviving attacker.
Analysts believe Islamabad's new announcement bodes well for the meeting between the two prime ministers.
"The announcement to put the five accused on trial will have a good impact on the forthcoming talks between the two premiers," foreign police analyst Talat Masood told AFP.
The Mumbai siege left in tatters a fragile peace process launched in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict between the neighbours, including a territorial dispute over the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir.
But Singh's re-election in May and a meeting between the Indian premier and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last month have renewed hopes of a thawing in relations.
New Delhi is insistent that it will resume talks to normalise ties only after Islamabad brings to justice the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.
India says the 10 gunmen who reached India's shore by sea and laid siege to Mumbai for 60 hours last November were Pakistan nationals who had been aided by their country's "official agencies".
New Delhi also said it had "overwhelming evidence" that "official agencies" in Pakistan were involved in plotting and carrying out the attacks, an apparent reference to Pakistan's spy agency and army, a charge Islamabad denied.
Among the suspects to be put on trial are alleged key LeT operatives Zarar Shah and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir, a territory which each rules in part but both claim in full.
The two sides came dangerously close to a fourth conflict after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants of attacking parliament in New Delhi in 2001.
- AFP /ls
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