Pakistan says it has so far arrested 124 people in a crackdown on groups allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks.Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said officials had also shut several schools run by a charity linked to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.Mr Malik said the moves showed Pakistan was serious about fighting extremism, but it needed more information from India to prosecute suspects in court.India says the attacks were plotted in Pakistan. Islamabad denies any link.Militant campsRelations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since the November attacks which left at least 173 dead.Earlier this week, India's interior minister accused Pakistan of doing nothing to apprehend those behind the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks and said ties could "snap" if it did not co-operate in the investigation.
Pakistan has dismissed India's dossier of evidence linking the attacks to elements in Pakistan as merely "information".Mr Malik said the authorities had so far closed down 87 institutions - including seven madrassas (religious schools) belonging to the banned Jamaat-ud-dawa Islamic charity. The organisation is widely seen as a political front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.They authorities also say that several militant camps linked to the 87 institutions have also been closed down, in addition to the main Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, which was shut in December.The group's main commander, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who has been named in India as being linked to the Mumbai attacks, was one of those arrested at that time.Mr Malik made clear that the arrests had taken place since early December.The UN Security Council last month ruled that he and three other Lashkar-e-Taiba members should face sanctions for links with al-Qaeda and the Taleban.They were issued with an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.The Security Council panel also said that the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa was a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba and subject to sanctions.'Onus on India'The Pakistani government says that all those arrested are still in custody and all will be dealt with under the Pakistani criminal justice system rather than be deported to India.
"We have done our best and the onus is now on India," Mr Malik said.He said that a committee had also been formed of high level police officials to monitor the activities of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan says that doubts however remain over the effectiveness of the latest crackdown, especially given Jamaat-ud-Dawa's growing role as a rich charity in an impoverished nation.Our correspondent says that there is also concern that that the group's main centre of operations in Muridke outside Lahore remains open and many senior leaders remain operative.Speaking in India, the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the Pakistani authorities needed to show "more urgency" in taking action against those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks."Pakistani authorities need to detain people and take further action like prosecution and action against them if found guilty," he said.
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