LAHORE / ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Pakistan is contemplating sending a team of investigators to India in connection with investigations into the Mumbai attacks.

“We are seriously considering sending an FIA team to India to share information on the Mumbai tragedy with the investigators there,” the prime minister told reporters before inaugurating the provincial directorate-general of the Benazir Income Support Programme here on Wednesday.

Newly-appointed Deputy Attorney General Sardar Ghazi said on Wednesday the government had sought extradition of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone-surviving terrorist of the Mumbai attacks.

He told private TV channels that India had been formally asked to hand over Ajmal Kasab.

But after denials by the Foreign Office and other top officials, the deputy attorney general later clarified his statement, saying the request was under consideration.

The FO spokesman said: “Pakistan has made no formal request (extradition of Kasab) to India as yet.”

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik said that neither had Pakistan asked for Kasab’s handover nor had India demanded the extradition of “Maulana Masood Azhar and Indian gold dealer Daud Ibrahim”.

“We will not provide shelter to any criminal on our land and we have offered an unconditional support to India to uncover the real culprits responsible for the Mumbai tragedy,” Mr Malik told reporters at the Lahore office of the Benazir Income Support Programme.

He said Pakistan had been a victim of terrorism for the past 10 years and had suffered a lot. “No one better than us can feel how much this terrorism cost.”

Information Minister Sherry Rehman also denied reports about the extradition request and said Maulana Azhar and Daud Ibrahim were not in Pakistan.

Interestingly, none of them denied or confirmed Mr Ghazi’s statement that the request was under consideration.

The deputy AG said the investigation into the Mumbai attacks could not reach a logical conclusion unless it was jointly conducted by Pakistan and India.

Prime Minister Gilani said the Indian government desired that FIA officials should visit India to assist its investigators in probing the Mumbai attacks.

He said the FIA had also sought permission from the government to visit India.

However, media reports suggest that India has never accepted Pakistan’s offer for a joint investigation.

Pakistan has registered an FIR against eight perpetrators for their alleged involvement in the attacks. Six of them are in government custody.

It has also sent to India a dossier containing 30 questions and urged it to reply to those to help the probe.

“We have asked the Indian authorities to share more information so that the culprits could be given strong prosecution. One should not think that we are passing responsibility to India, rather we want to give strong prosecution to the culprits,” the adviser recently said at a press conference.

In the dossier, Pakistan has sought statement of Ajmal Kasab given to Indian authorities, his fingerprints and details about his accomplices and intercepted conversation.

Marshal plan

President Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday Pakistan needed a marshal plan to fight militancy through socio-economic development, education and employment.

During a meeting with Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, Adviser to David Cameron, British Minister for National Security, the president said the international community needed to devise a marshal plan for building Pakistan’s capability to fight the militants through a massive development programme in tribal areas.

More than half of over 170 million people in Pakistan, he said, were young men and women with expectations to enter into a productive job market.“Their frustration with the current socio-economic development and unemployment are a breeding ground for social unrest and militancy in the country.”

Pauline Jones said that Pakistan’s response to the Mumbai attacks was encouraging.