Red faces as fugitives' discovered in India

The authorities in New Delhi have been forced to admit to an embarrassing mistake after it emerged several individuals included on a "most-wanted fugitives" list handed to Pakistan were actually living in India.

In the days after this month's operation by United States special forces to kill Osama bin Laden, India revealed that it had previously handed to Pakistan a list of criminal suspects who it claimed were living across the border.

With Pakistan facing widespread allegations that elements within the establishment may have helped harbour the al-Qaeda leader, India was seeking to heap further pressure on its long-term rival.

But after news of the list of the 50 "most wanted" emerged, Indian media organisations started checking the details and coming up with some intriguing discoveries.

Among those included on the list and alleged to be living in Pakistan was Wazhul Kamar Khan, accused of involvement in a bomb attack on a Mumbai train in 2003 in which 11 people were killed and more than 80 were injured.

But Khan was arrested last year, released on bail and continues to live at his mother's house in Mumbai.

Another suspect on the list and said to be taking refuge in Pakistan was in an Indian jail awaiting trial. Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan, who is also accused of involvement in the 2003 train bombing, was arrested last year.

There is a suggestion that a third individual on the list is living not in Pakistan but in the United Arab Emirates.

The political opposition has made merry with the foul-up, describing it as a "monumental error" and demanding action.

Pakistan - perhaps to rub salt into Delhi's wounds - chose to play matters rather more coolly, with Interior Minister Rehman Malik saying it was not a big issue.

"Let us forget about it, and move forward sincerely to enhance friendship between Pakistan and India," he wrote on Twitter.

The Congress Party-led Government eventually called for a review of the list and decided to withdraw it.

Home Affairs Minister P. Chidambara said the revelation had been a wake-up call to the investigative agencies, but offered no apology.

- INDEPENDENT