LeT Threat Not Only to India but to America, Allies: US Experts

An eminent expert on South Asia has said that the US should be ready to act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in case Pakistan is unable or unwilling to take action against the outfit that continues to its spearhead against India, reported IANS.

“Doing so may be increasingly necessary not simply to prevent a future Indo-Pakistani crisis, but more importantly to protect the United States, its citizens, its interests, and its allies,” Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was quoted as telling a Congressional panel on Thursday.

At the hearing of the House of Representatives subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, he said that with the exception of al-Qaida, LeT was arguably the most significant terrorist group operating from South Asia and was the mastermind of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, said report.

Tellis suggested that LeT ‘remains the spearhead of the Pakistani military’s campaign against India’, said report.

“LeT remains primarily Pakistani in its composition, uses Pakistani territory as its main base of operation, and continues to be supported extensively by the Pakistani state, especially the army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),” he was quoted as saying.

Suggesting that the US should stop pretending that LeT is an independent actor, Tellis said that its ambitions extend beyond India.

“A candid recognition that the organisation receives protection and support from the Pakistani state would go a long way toward solving the problem,” he was quoted as saying.

He noted that India and the US have successfully partnered together on matters of intelligence and counter-terrorist since 26/11 attacks.

“This cooperation should expand further,” he was quoted as saying.

While, Pakistan expert Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said that Washington must develop policies that approach the LeT with the same urgency as that which the US deals with the threat from Al Qaeda.

“Given the potential for LeT-linked terrorist cells to conduct a Mumbai-style attack here in the US, Washington must pursue policies that contain and shut down the operations of this deadly organization,” she was quoted as saying.

She said that this would require close cooperation with the Pakistani government, which has in the past supported the LeT, and only recently and haltingly begun to take steps to rein in the group’s activities, report said.