Washington, Dec.3 (ANI): An editorial in the Washington Post has been quite categorical in stating that Pakistan holds the key to salvaging not only its nascent civilian democracy, but also in taking steps to prevent it and India from sliding toward a war in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai.

Though Pakistan is likely to enjoy Washington's support, both from the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration, the editorial cautions that Islamabad will have to come up with credible plans and show tangible results to permanently remove suspicions of a Pakistani link to the slaughter of nearly 200 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai.

It further goes on to say that while Indian security officials are being forced to resign for failing to foresee and prevent the Mumbai massacre, there is public as well as international pressure mounting on Pakistan to deliver on its anti-terrorism promises.

Both Washington and New Delhi are of the view that while the Pakistan Government may not be directly involved or blamed for the attacks, they are concerned, if not aggravated about the extent to which Pakistan-based terrorists enjoy support from within Pakistani military intelligence.

The editorial warns that India has the ability to strike terrorist targets in Pakistan, and therefore, Pakistan should heed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's missive to be completely, absolutely and totally transparent in its cooperation with New Delhi on terror investigations. (ANI)

Bangkok, Dec.3 (ANI): Thailand's ruling People's Power Party has been dissolved and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has been dismissed from office by a court ruling on Tuesday after weeks of protests.

According to The Telegraph, the judgment was greeted with jubilation by anti-government protesters who overran Bangkok's airports last week, demanding that the government step down. "We have won a victory and achieved our aims," declared the protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul.

The People's Power Party, the Machima Thipatai party and the Chart Thai party were found guilty of committing electoral fraud in December 2007 that brought the coalition to power. Under Thailand's Constitution, any party convicted of election fraud must be dissolved and all its executive members banned from politics for five years.

Wongsawat, 61, was in office for less than three months. Accepting the court's verdict, he said:. "My duty is over."

However, supporters of the government are angry that the courts have twice intervened to topple a prime minister with a strong parliamentary majority in what they call a "judicial coup d'etat". Hundreds of supporters of the government picketed the court before the verdict and briefly managed to cut the building's power supply. They complained that the case appeared to have been fast-tracked and that some witness testimony had gone unheard.

So far seven people have been killed in six months of political tension and hundreds have been injured. (ANI)

London, Dec.3 (ANI): Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has told a leading British daily that neither Pakistan nor India can afford to escalate tensions at present, as this would have a disastrous impact for the war on terror.

"The architects of this calamity in Mumbai have managed to raise a threat on our other (eastern) border. As we have these people (militants) on the run along our western border (with Afghanistan), our attention is being diverted at this critical time," The News quoted Zardari as saying in a telephone interview from Islamabad.

According to the paper, Pakistan is worried that suspected foreign involvement in the terror attacks on Mumbai will lead to a sharp deterioration of relations with India.

Zardari warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbours. (ANI)

Mumbai, Dec.3 (ANI): The sole surviving terrorist that attacked Mumbai last week, killing about 195 people and injuring 295 others, has revealed that his father was paid by a Pakistan-based militant group to hand him over.

Azam Amir Kasab, 21, a Pakistani national from Faridkot in Punjab province, said that his father, Amir, introduced him to a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander. The commander, known as "chacha" (uncle), paid his father, The Times quotes Kasab, as saying. Security experts say that payment is one of three main recruitment tools used by Islamist extremists. The other two are the madrassas, or Islamic seminaries, scattered across Pakistan, and threats of violence, often made to the families of those being recruited.

It is thought that as many as 15 Indian officials are sitting in on the militant's interrogation, and many are leaking their interpretations of his responses to the media. Others are speculating that the fact that Kasab apparently speaks fluent English indicates he is probably from Pakistan's relatively wealthy middle classes.

Experts also believe it is unlikely that a recruit who had been coerced would be sent on an attack of the scale of Mumbai.

"They would not send somebody who would compromise the mission," Dr. Lakshman, of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, said

Indian officials remain convinced that the attack on Mumbai bears the hallmark of Lashkar-e-Toiba, which was believed to be behind a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.

They also believe that Lashkar-e-Toiba does not act without the sanction of some part of the Pakistan government. Officials are also concerned that five terrorist gunmen that have escaped after the carnage and could strike again.

The prospect of more killers has added to public anger at the Indian Government's lax handling of the worst terror strike to hit the country in 15 years. (ANI)