New Delhi, January 22
Germany, which lost three of its citizens in Mumbai terror strikes, today said it felt that Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the attacks but cannot hazard a guess on other groups that could be linked to al-Qaida being behind it.

"Based on whatever investigations we have conducted till now, we feel it is LeT that is responsible for these attacks," Joerg Ziercke, President of Germany's Federal Police, told reporters here.

"But apart from that we cannot hazard a guess on what are the other parties that are part of the groups also involved in this. When I say other groups, I mean other groups that have linkages with the al-Qaida," he said speaking through an interpreter.

Ziercke said the German investigators do not know whether the LeT had direct connections in Mumbai attacks. "...that is something we are not completely sure of as yet," he said.

Ziercke shared the German perspective on the Mumbai attacks in his discussions yesterday with NSA MK Narayanan, Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and IB Director Rajiv Mathur. He also met CBI Director Ashwini Kumar and top officials in the Narcotics Control Bureau.

The German official said his discussions with Indian officials did not focus on the evidence New Delhi had given to Pakistan with regard to the Mumbai terror attacks.

"We generally spoke about the incident, the German perspective and what we have to say about it," he said.

However, German Ambassador Bernd Mutzelberg said he expected the Pakistani authorities to act on the leads given to them and also proceed on their own investigations into the Mumbai attacks.

Ziercke said Germany would be interested in the outcome of the investigations into the Mumbai carnage as three German nationals were killed in the attack.

"The Federal Prosecutor General of Germany has already initiated legal proceedings in the case," he said.

Ziercke said the LeT was also active in Germany but did not pose any "operative risk".

"There are two or three people in Germany who have direct links with the LeT. In the same breath, I would like to mention that there is no operative risk from these two or three people that we have identified," he said.

As per the investigations in Germany, he said that these operatives, which include German nationals as well, underwent trainings in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The operatives were planning attacks on German troops based in Afghanistan," he said. — PTI