New Delhi, Jan 22: Germany, which lost three of its
citizens in Mumbai terror strikes, on Thursday said it felt that
Lashkar-e-Toiba was responsible for the attacks but cannot
hazard a guess on other groups that could be linked to al
Qaeda being behind it.
"Based on whatever investigations we have conducted till
now, we feel it is LeT that is responsible for these attacks,"
Joerg Ziercke, President of Germany`s Federal Police told
reporters here.
"But apart from that we cannot hazard a guess on what are
the other parties that are part of the groups also involved in
this. When I say other groups, I mean other groups that have
linkages with the al Qaeda," he said speaking through an
interpreter.
Ziercke said the German investigators do not know whether
the LeT had direct connections in Mumbai attacks. "...that is
something we are not completely sure of as yet," he said.
Ziercke shared the German perspective on the Mumbai
attacks in his discussions yesterday with NSA M K Narayanan,
Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and IB Director Rajiv Mathur. He
also met CBI Director Ashwini Kumar and top officials in the
Narcotics Control Bureau.
The German official said his discussions with Indian
officials did not focus on the evidence New Delhi had given to
Pakistan with regard to the Mumbai terror attacks.
"We generally spoke about the incident, the German
perspective and what we have to say about it," he said.
However, German Ambassador Bernd Mutzelberg said he
expected the Pakistani authorities to act on the leads given
to them and also proceed on their own investigations into the
Mumbai attacks.
Ziercke said Germany would be interested in the outcome
of the investigations into the Mumbai carnage as three German
nationals were killed in the attack.
"The Federal Prosecutor General of Germany has already
initiated legal proceedings in the case," he said.
Ziercke said the LeT was also active in Germany but did
not pose any "operative risk".
"There are two or three people in Germany who have direct
links with the LeT. In the same breath, I would like to
mention that there is no operative risk from these two or
three people that we have identified," he said.
As per the investigations in Germany, he said that these
operatives, which include German nationals as well, underwent
trainings in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"The operatives were planning attacks on German troops
based in Afghanistan," he said.
Bureau Report
