Islamabad: Pakistan may seek custody of the lone-surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks from India to strengthen its prosecution of those behind the assault, Pakistan's top interior ministry official said on Saturday.
Islamabad acknowledged for the first time this week that the November attack in the Indian financial capital was launched and partly planned from Pakistan.
Pakistani investigators lodged a police complaint against eight suspects,including Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani militant caught alive by Indian forces during the attack that killed at least 179 people between November 26-28.
Nine other gunmen were killed in the assault. "If investigators recommend it and the court asked for him, then definitely we will do that," Rehman Malik, advisor to the prime minister on interior, told reporters when asked if Pakistan would seek custody of Kasab.
"It's premature but when the name of a person appears in a (police complaint), he is needed in the case ... We will do it when our investigators think he is needed here."
Pakistan says six of the eight suspects, including a ringleader, are in custody while two others are at large.
Malik urged Indian authorities to expedite their probe and respond to 30 questions raised by Pakistani investigators and sent to India, which would help in Pakistan's prosecution.
India welcomed Pakistan's acknowledgement the attacks were partly planned on its soil in a sign of a possible thaw in ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours who have fought three wars since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
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