Another LeT attack in India could destabilise the region

Washington, May 25 (PTI) Another major terrorist
attack in India by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has the potential to
destabilise the region, a powerful American lawmaker has said,
adding that this Pakistan-based militant outfit has increased
its threat potential to the United States too.
"This group (LeT), responsible for the vicious Mumbai
attacks of 2008, is capable of not only destabilising the
region with another attack against India, but through its
extensive alumni organisation and network of training camps
throughout Pakistan, it could threaten the United States
homeland," Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad continue to
launch attacks that risk sparking war between nuclear-armed
India and Pakistan, he said. Testifying before the committee,
Christina Fair, an eminent expert if the region, said that
Pakistan has raised and nurtured a number of militant
groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba being just one, to operate in India
and in Afghanistan.
"These are distinct from the Pakistani Taliban, which
has been ravaging the state, although part of the Pakistan
Taliban does draw personnel from rebel erstwhile proxies," she
said.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba draws most of its recruits from
Deobandis and other sectarian groups. This allows them to
indoctrinate them into this worldview, and since it deploys
relatively few people to Kashmir, this is an important part of
its domestic outreach mission," Fair said. But Lashkar-e-Taiba will become more important to the
Pakistani state as its internal security continues to degrade
at the hands of these Deobandi groups," Fair added.
"I can see that if Lashkar-e-Taiba only had external
utility, then resolving the Indo-Pakistani security
competition would be necessary, probably insufficient, to put
that group down," Fair said in response to a question.
Referring to the ongoing Rana trial in Chicago,
Senator Ben Cardin said David Headley a confessed
Pakistan-American terrorist, testified that ISI and LeT
coordinated with each other, and ISI provided assistance to
Lashkar financial, military and moral support.
"Now, I don't know how the United States can just
ignore this. It seems to me that we need to be able to
confront Pakistan's support for terrorist organisations. And
US taxpayers are providing support to Pakistan today.
That's an issue that will come to the attention of the
United States Congress. So it's going hit a crisis point if we
cannot get Pakistan to support the war against terror,
including terrorist organisations within their own state,"
Fair said.
Fair responded by observing that the United States
dismissed Lashkar-e-Taiba for years as India's threat.
"Pakistan never turned its back on Laskhar-e-Taiba.
Pakistan did a U-turn on its U- turn with the Taliban very
early in the conflict, and there were no consequences because
we had other preoccupations that did not allow us to have the
fortitude that we should have had to be more forthright with
Pakistan," she said.