India To File `Waging War` Charges Over Mumbai

India has blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack and has said there must have been support from Pakistani security agencies.

Police will file the first formal charges over last year's Mumbai attacks on Wednesday, a government lawyer said, accusing a man identified as the lone surviving gunman and several others of waging war against India.

Those to be charged included some accused of planning last November's attacks in India's financial hub, police and officials said on Tuesday. The attacks killed 179 people and revived tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan.

Government lawyer Ujjal Nikam told Reuters the accused included two Indians who were members of an Islamist militant group who had been charged with scouting Mumbai landmarks before the attack on India's financial hub. India has handed Pakistan data from satellite phones used by the attackers and what it describes as the confession of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the man identified as the surviving gunman.

"Kasab and others have been charged with waging war against the state and conspiracy," Nikam said.

India has blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attack and has said there must have been support from Pakistani security agencies.

Pakistan has acknowledged that the deadly raid had been launched and partly planned from Pakistan. It is conducting its own investigation and has detained several Islamist leaders, including some whom India has named as planners of the attack. India mounted a diplomatic offensive after the attacks, saying Pakistan was not doing enough to bring the perpetrators to justice or dismantle what it said were militant camps there.

Rakesh Maria, the chief Indian investigator in the attack, said the charge sheet would be a "mammoth" document running into thousands of pages.

Other officials said the charge sheet would also mention the names of nine gunmen who were killed by Indian security forces during the long siege on several Mumbai landmarks.