The growing diplomatic row between India and Pakistan reached new heights this week, with India's prime minister formally accusing the Pakistani state of involvement in the deadly attacks in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), which left 172 dead.

"Official agencies" in Pakistan supported the militants who attacked Mumbai in November, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, making India's sharpest accusation yet that Pakistan's government was involved," Bloomberg reports.

"There is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," Singh told chief ministers of India's states today at a meeting on counter-terrorism....

The comments by Singh "are the most explicit accusation so far" of a role by Pakistani official agencies, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi-based research group.

The accusation comes after India on Monday handed over a trove of alleged evidence to Pakistan and demanded that it act, according to the Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn.

The evidence handed to Pakistan rests largely on the interrogation of the lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman, also known as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who is said to hail from the Pakistani Punjab.

He has reportedly told authorities that he and nine other gunmen were Pakistanis, that he was trained in Pakistan and that the people behind the attack were still there. Pakistan has said it has no record of Kasab as a Pakistani citizen.

Other evidence included: conversations between the alleged handlers in Pakistan and the gunmen during the attack; recovered weapons; and data retrieved from global positioning system and satellite phones. Islamabad says there is no proof the attacks were launched from its soil.

Pakistan has so far responded with skepticism, according to The News, a popular English daily in Pakistan.

Pakistan said it was examining the contents of the 'information' passed on to it and will 'evaluate' it. However, it proposed setting up of a joint commission to be headed by the respective national security advisers.

"Most of it has been leaked to the media anyway, so there was nothing new. So many people have a copy of the dossier now, that we will not be surprised if we see it in the media here. We understand that Pakistan has made quite a headway in its own investigations and this is a good sign", [Interior Ministry] sources maintained.

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