Pakistan said Saturday it might seek the custody of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai mayhem, if its investigations require this,
but India immediately nixed the idea.
"If Ajmal Kasab is needed for the investigation process, then India could be asked (to hand) him over," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Karachi.
India was quick to react, saying there was no way this could happen.
"The crime was committed in India. There is no question of handing Kasab to them. In fact, Pakistan should hand over to India the other suspects they've arrested because they were responsible for this terror attack. It can't be the other way around," sources in the Indian external affairs ministry said in New Delhi.
"On what basis do we send Kasab out there? The crime was committed out here (in Mumbai), therefore logic and reasoning demands that the suspects who they've rounded up be sent here (to India)," the sources said.
According to Malik, "we first had to register an FIR (first information report on the Mumbai strikes). This has been done. Now, if our investigators recommend, we will ask for access to him (Kasab)," Malik added.
"So far, we have not asked for Kasab's custody," the minister pointed out.
He said Kasab was one of the eight suspects named in the FIR registered by the Federal Investigation Agency on the Mumbai strikes. Six of the suspects have been arrested while two are at large.
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