December 24, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 25, 1429

WASHINGTON, Dec 23: The United States has been urging Pakistan ‘every single day’ to catch those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks, says the US State Department.

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told a briefing on Tuesday that President George W. Bush sent his top military official to South Asia following reports that tensions between India and Pakistan could lead to a war.

“I don't know if President Bush has,” said Mr Fratto when asked if President Bush had spoken to Indian and Pakistani leaders to prevent a war. “I know Admiral (Mike) Mullen is in the region, and he's speaking to people in the region.”

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States had not yet reached a stage where it could determine the final outcome of Pakistan’s efforts to catch those responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

“We are still at the stage where we are urging Pakistan every single day to do whatever it can to prevent future attacks and to track down and get off the street those responsible for these attacks,” he said.

“We will get to a stage at some point where, you know, we look very closely at exactly what is the final disposition of these individuals who have been arrested over time.”

Mr McCormack said he could not yet offer “a specific policy prescription” on how the United States would deal with the situation if Pakistan failed to catch the culprits.

“But it is important that Pakistan and India continue to talk and to work through any differences through dialogue and diplomacy that they might have, and that every single day Pakistan focus on the task at hand, and that is to prevent any further attacks,” he added.

The State Department official stressed that Pakistan would have to make ‘specific arrangements” for bringing to justice those responsible for the attacks and then they should talk to the Indian government about this.

“They have populations that are affected by it. And certainly, we would have concerns about that as American citizens were murdered in these attacks,” he said.

Asked if the US government knew whether militant leader Masood Azhar had been detained or not, Mr McCormack said: “No. It has been known on occasions to happen even in this government where there are conflicting reports that happen. I’ll leave it to the Pakistani authorities to describe whom they have detained and who they are looking to detain.”

Replying to another question, the official said the decision to warn Americans not to travel to India was not a political decision.

He said the US law required the government to warn its citizens about possible threats to their safety in a certain area and that’s why those travel warnings were issued.