Pakistan hands over DNA profiles
Interpol says the information will be vital in investigating the Mumbai attacks.
Police in Pakistan have detained a number of people in connection with the attacks and banned a group suspected of having links to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Ronald Noble, the Interpol secretary-general, said in a statement: “Pakistan’s decision to send its DNA terrorist-related profiles to Interpol so that all member countries can compare their DNA profiles against them sets a benchmark for Interpol in terrorist-related investigations.”
The Pakistan DNA profiles have been added to Interpol’s database which contains almost 85,000 profiles and are available for international comparison by its 187 member countries.
In December, the agency said that New Delhi had still not shared its information on the attacks.
The attacks strained already poor relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“India has blamed non-state actors in Pakistan as well as official agencies,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Islamabad, said.
“It has repeatedly said that Islamabad is not doing anything, or at least not pursuing the investigation in a serious manner.”
The handover of the DNA information came as the new head of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) visited South Asia to discuss the fight against al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban fighters in the region.
Leon Panetta, who was sworn in as head of the CIA last month, held talks with Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, and Asif Ali Zardari, the president, on Saturday after meeting Indian officials earlier in the week.