India urged Pakistan on Saturday to put more suspects on trial for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, highlighting lingering tension between the nuclear-armed rivals even as they strive to improve ties.
The tough message came as the country's Home Minister P. Chidambaram held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik on the sidelines of a regional conference.
The neighbours have embarked on a tentative reconciliation process since relations crashed to a new low after Islamist gunmen went on a rampage in Mumbai in November 2008, leaving 166 people dead.
Delhi blames the attack on Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and wants more action from Islamabad to bring the masterminds to justice.
The group's founder, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and key operative Zarar Shah are on trial in Pakistan. India also blames Hafiz Saeed, head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which is seen as a front for the LeT.
"We know that seven people are being prosecuted in the case. How far that prosecution has proceeded is for the Pakistan government to say," Chidambaram said.
"We think that more people stay behind the terrorist attack and more people should be prosecuted."
Chidambaram met Malik as a meeting of South Asian interior ministers in Islamabad ended with a resolution to develop a common anti-terrorism strategy.
"We will try to beat the threat relating to security, that is natural, that is very normal and that is what Mr Rehman Malik and I tried to do in our meeting. Then we identify what needs to be done and what has already been done," the Indian minister said.
"We are trying to pick up the pace again, foreign ministers are talking to each other, the prime ministers have met and home and interior ministers meet, obviously the focus will be on terrorism.
"I have conveyed whatever was necessary to convey to my counterpart and he conveyed what… he felt necessary to convey to me and I remain positive that something good will emerge out of this meeting and interaction," he added.
Earlier, interior ministers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference made a joint declaration that included a pledge to "extend cooperation to each other against terrorism".
SAARC, founded in 1985, groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Critics have blamed its inability to exploit the region's potential on the long and bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan, its two most powerful members.
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