Finger of suspicion points to Pak: Chidambaram

New Delhi: Valuable evidence had been gathered to establish the involvement of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants from Pakistan in the Mumbai terror attack, Home Minister P Chidambaram said here on Thursday and asserted that India "cannot go back to business as usual".

“The finger of suspicion points to the territory of our neighbour, Pakistan,” Chidambaram said in a statement in the Lok Sabha on the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170 people.

Images: The men who attacked Mumbai

“We will strain every nerve to defend our borders. Given the nature of the threats, we cannot go back to business as usual. Hard decisions will be taken to protect our country and its people.”

“Valuable material evidence has been collected from the trawler they (militants) hijacked off the Gujarat coast to the inflatable dinghies they took to arrive in Mumbai that their origins were from Pakistan,” he said.

Full coverage: Mumbai terror attack

Detailing the journey the 10 militants undertook after boarding a vessel near Karachi on Nov 23 and how they carried out their operation with meticulous precision after arriving in Mumbai in the evening of November 26, Chidambaram said the audacious attack had forced the government to review intelligence and security mechanisms in the country.

Besides beefing up coastal security and improving both human and technical intelligence, Chidambaram said the government planned to bring in a bill in parliament to set up a national investigation agency that would deal with terror crimes.

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