US-LASHKAR 2 LAST

"Pakistan must tackle the terrorist menace in a
comprehensive and consistent manner and prove to the
international community that it is serious about dealing with
this issue. Continued complaints about India and the threat it
poses to Pakistan will soon start to fall on deaf ears and be
seen as a weak excuse not to take on dangerous groups like the
LeT," Curtis and McNeill said.

Pakistan, they said, has long been ambivalent about
shutting down terrorist groups whose primary focus is
destabilising India.
This has not only put Indian citizens at risk. It is
now clear that Pakistani negligence in dealing appropriately
with groups like the LeT has also put US and other Western
citizens at risk, they said.
Curtis and McNeill alleged that despite proof of LeT
involvement in the Mumbai attacks, the US has up to now failed
to prioritise the goal of pressing Pakistan to take serious
action against the group.
"As recently as six months ago, some senior US
officials refused to recognise that LeT also posed a threat to
US interests. These officials viewed the LeT solely through
the Indo-Pakistani lens and asserted that it was more
important for the US to use its leverage with Pakistan to go
after al-Qaeda rather than a group whose primary focus was
attacking India," they said.
"With the breaking of the Headley case, this is all
likely to change... It is now clear that the LeT could easily
have turned its guns on a US target and will likely do so
unless the Pakistan government shuts down the group now," they
said. PTI LKJ
ANU


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