NEW DELHI: India's foreign minister said Friday that the US planner of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks should have got a harsher sentence than 35 years in prison and added that New Delhi still wanted his extradition.
David Headley, 52, who admitted to scouting targets for the Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died, cooperated with US authorities to avoid the death penalty during his sentencing in Chicago on Thursday.
"If we would have tried him, we would have sought much more (punishment). But the judge is bound by the structured system of justice delivery in the US," Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told India's CNN-IBN TV network.
"It's a beginning," Khurshid told other reporters in New Delhi.
"This should go a long way in hopefully conveying a very clear message" that such acts are not tolerated, he added.
Last November, India executed Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai rampage that lasted three days and traumatised India.
On the thorny issue of Headley's extradition, Khurshid said India has been "consistently" pushing its demand with Washington.
