Pakistan giving Interpol data on 26/11 probe

Pakistan has agreed to give Interpol DNA profiles and other data from its probe into the Mumbai terror attacks to help investigate possible broader international links, the international police agency said.

Interpol will then compare the data to what it has received from India, which accuses militants from Pakistan of carrying out the 26/11 attack.

"Pakistan understands that unless terrorist-related information is compared against Interpol's global databases and shared among its global network, an international terrorist investigation can never be considered complete and all countries that are not provided with this vital information remain at risk," Interpol's secretary-general, Ronald K Noble, said in a statement yesterday.

Noble yesterday met Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the director of the Federal Investigation Agency, Tariq Khosa, in Islamabad.

Pakistan agreed to send Interpol the DNA profiles obtained during the agency's investigation "to determine whether there are even broader international links to the Mumbai terrorist attacks," the Lyon, France-based Interpol said.

Pakistan gave Interpol copies of requests it had sent to four countries for additional investigative leads, Interpol said. The statement did not name the countries.

India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group believed to have links to Pakistani intelligence, for the November 26 bombings that killed 164 people. Interpol also offered passport screening technology to Pakistan to help monitor its borders.