Islamabad: Pakistan is seeking an English translation of information India provided about November's militant attacks in Mumbai in order to begin prosecutions of suspects, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
India says the assault on Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed, was carried out by Pakistan-based militants who must have had backing from some official Pakistani agencies.
Tension between the nuclear-armed rivals rose sharply after the attack, and India put on hold a five-year-old peace process that had brought better ties.
Pakistani investigators have acknowledged the coordinated attacks in India's financial capital were launched and partly planned from Pakistan's soil, and that the sole surviving attacker was Pakistani.
But Islamabad has been demanding information from India saying it needed evidence to press ahead with its own investigation and prosecution of anyone found involved.
India gave Pakistan a dossier of information shortly after the attack and handed over new material on May 20 in response to Pakistani questions. But Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said most of the new information was in either the Hindi or Marathi languages.
"Unfortunately, most of the material which has been given to us is in languages other than English and Urdu," Basit said at a regular briefing.
Urdu is Pakistan's national language and English its official language.
"So you can see ... as to why and how this delay is occurring with regard to our proceeding to commence the process of prosecution, formal prosecution. We have now formally requested India to give us an English version of this material," he said.
Pakistan has lodged police complaints against eight suspects, including Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive by Indian forces during the attack. Nine attackers were killed by Indian commandos.
India has repeatedly said Pakistan was not doing enough to bring the perpetrators to justice.
India's Home Minister, P Chidambaram, said this week Pakistan had been given enough evidence to prosecute those behind the attack. Neither India nor Pakistan have offered details of the latest information India handed over but Indian media said it contained DNA samples from the attackers.
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