A Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani suspects on terror charges Wednesday in connection with last year's attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, a defense lawyer said. A lawyer for one of the seven men charged with taking part in the Mumbai attack said they had pleaded not guilty. They are allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). “The statements recorded and the evidence produced against the accused are contradictory to the charges,” lawyer Shahbaz Rajput told Reuters. India has refused to resume peace talks with Pakistan and sought to bring international pressure on Islamabad to act against militants operating from its soil, including LeT. Washington wants relations between the uneasy, nuclear-armed neighbors to improve so its crucial ally Pakistan can focus on fighting Taliban militants, as well as helping in the war in Afghanistan. LeT is not believed to have carried out attacks inside Pakistan but its presence may still worry the government, which wants to demonstrate it is in control despite a battle against militants on several fronts. It has a large network of support among Pakistanis around the world, raising fears it could attack Western targets. Pakistani authorities officially banned Lashkar after it was blamed for a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. Authorities also briefly put Lashkar's founder, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, under house arrest and closed the offices of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a charity he headed, after the United Nations said it was a new alias for LeT and put it on a terrorist list in 2008.
