Pressurise Pakistan to dismantle LeT infrastructure: US expert

Calling Lashkar-e-Taiba one of the greatest threats to American and Indian interests in South Asia today, a US expert has suggested that Washington apply consistent pressure on Pakistan to dismantle LeT infrastructure.

The US needs to consider LeT, the Pakistan based terror group responsible for the 2008 November terror attacks, with the same importance as Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban,  Sahibzada Amer Latif, visiting fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, told a House panel last week.

"To that end, Washington must apply continual pressure on the Pakistani military establishment to dismantle LeT infrastructure and refrain from using LeT as an asymmetric capability against India," he said.

The current state of US-Pakistan relations will make this difficult in the near term but LeT's ability to upset regional stability between India and Pakistan is arguably greater than other terror threats faced by the US, Latif noted.

"While there are significant challenges to optimising bilateral counterterrorism cooperation, the strategic stakes are too high for both sides to allow their efforts to lag," he said testifying on "US-India Counterterrorism Cooperation: Deepening the Partnership".

Aside from bilateral counterterrorism efforts, both sides should also consider a regional dimension to their cooperation, Latf suggested noting "terror groups such as the LeT and the Harkat ul Jihadi al Islami (HuJI) have become adept as exploiting weak borders and ungoverned spaces along India's borders in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives".

Another major challenge to effective counterterrorism cooperation is how each side views the terrorist threat. While both sides agree the scourge of terrorism needs to be addressed, there are concerns in New Delhi about Washington's relationship with Pakistan, Latif said.

For India, Pakistan represents the epicentre of the terror threat against India, and Indian officials are frustrated that Washington does not push the army leadership in Rawalpindi more aggressively to dismantle LeT's infrastructure, he said.

While Washington realises the danger that LeT poses to regional stability and has been vocal about bringing the Mumbai attackers to justice, it still does not meet Indian expectations of placing it on an equal plane with al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, Latif added.