Pakistan names 2 Lashkar suspects held in Mumbai Terror probe

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani confirmed on Wednesday the arrest of two members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadi group named by India as suspects in the conspiracy behind the attack on Mumbai last month.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, both operations commanders with Lashkar, were being held for questioning, Gilani told journalists in Multan city in Punjab province.

"They have been detained for investigation," he said. Unnamed officials had said Lakhvi was arrested in a raid on a Lashkar camp in Pakistani Kashmir on Sunday, but there had been no confirmation from the government until now.

The United States has engaged in intensive diplomacy to stop tensions mounting between nuclear armed India and Pakistan and keep Islamabad focused on fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda threat on its border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said an operation against banned militant organisations remained underway, and was being carried out in several places. He refused to say where, or how many people had been arrested.

The prime minister said he had no up-to-date information on whether Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group, had also been detained.

Pakistan has been advised by the United States to take swift, transparent action to cooperate with India in the investigation into the slaughter in India's financial capital.