India Charges Suspect in Mumbai Attacks

Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Kasab has been held by the police since he was captured in the early hours of the three-day attacks, but had not been formally charged.

Nine other attackers were killed during the 60-hour rampage across two five-star hotels, a Jewish center and a crowded train station in India's financial hub, leaving more than 160 people dead.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters that the 11,000-page charge sheet names 37 other people, including two Indians and two Pakistani soldiers, with planning and abetting the attacks that killed more than 160 people and revived tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.

"The charge sheet has 35 wanted (accused) and three accused," Nikam said, waving a copy of the charge sheet, according to news agencies. He said he would try to wind up the trial in 3-6 months.

Rakesh Maria, the chief Indian investigator in the case, said two Pakistan army officials accused of training the gunmen were among those charged, but he did not give their names or rank.

Police have said that their evidence includes transcripts of phone calls between the attackers and their "handlers" in Pakistan, what police say is Kasab's confession and closed-circuit television footage that shows him and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets.

Indian law requires that charges be filed against a suspect within 90 days of arrest. Kasab was formally arrested Nov. 28. He has been given a copy of the police charge sheet, Nikam said.

If convicted on the two most critical charges -- murder and waging war against India -- the 21-year-old Kasab will likely face the death penalty. Those charges also mean there is almost no chance Kasab would be handed over to Pakistan for trial.

India has blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant group widely believed created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight India rule in the divided Kashmir region.

India has also said that all 10 attackers were from Pakistan.

Those charged as key planners of the attacks included Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other senior Lashkar members Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah.

Nikam said the two arrested Indians -- Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin -- who are Lashkar members accused of scouting Mumbai landmarks before the attacks.

The charge sheet contains accounts of more than 2,200 witnesses as well as other evidence provided by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which helped with the probe.

India has said the Pakistani militants must have been supported by Pakistani security agencies.

Pakistan has acknowledged that the deadly raid had been launched and partly planned from its soil. It is conducting its own investigation and has detained several Islamist leaders, including some whom India has named as planners of the attack.

India has handed Pakistan data from satellite phones used by the attackers and Kasab's confession.

India mounted a diplomatic offensive after the attacks, saying Pakistan was not doing enough to bring the perpetrators to justice or dismantle what it said were militant camps there.

The next hearing of the case is on March 9.