The Unites States believes that jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is dangerously active in Pakistan despite the ban imposed on it by the authorities here, official sources said. “The US has conveyed this concern to Pakistan. They think the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s activities are unchecked and they are very much active inside Pakistan,” a senior government official told this newspaper.
LeT is accused of spearheading the rebellion against the Indian rule in Kashmir and has been accused of terror attacks in India. Pakistan has banned the outfit. “The US has asked Pakistan to be strict and take action against Lashkar militants who were masterminding terrorism virtually unchallenged,” said the official. He added, “The US thinks Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is becoming a global terror threat like the Al Qaeda.”
Dreaded for its rebel operations in Kashmir, and accused by the Indian government of masterminding the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed over 100 people, including six Americans, the LeT is already in the media spotlight after the FBI recently submitted before a US federal court that the outfit is engaged in imparting commando training to its recruits at its terrorist camps located inside Pakistan.
Over the past decade, the US treasury has added the LeT and its so-called charitable front organisations, the JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, as global terrorist groups. The JuD leadership refutes all the charges levelled against the group and insists that it is purely a welfare organisation with no links to any militant group. In a communiqué, the US secretary of homeland security Janet Napo-litano even said that the LeT is in the same lea-gue as the Al Qaeda beca-use it is no different than the latter in terms of its strength and organisation.
The US official, therefore, demanded that the Pakistani authorities should proceed against the LeT to dismantle its vast jihadi infrastructure led by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the JuD chief who is wanted by the Indian authorities for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. On December 11, 2008, while acceding to an Indian request, the UN Security Council designated the JuD as a global terrorist outfit while describing it as the frontal organisation for the LeT. The UNSC’s Al Qaeda and Taliban sanctions committee also declared Hafiz Saeed a terrorist in the wake of his group’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks. However, despite the UN ban on JuD activities, its countrywide vast educational and healthcare network continues to run without any restrictions.
On the other hand, the federal government in Islamabad has blamed the Punjab government for giving a free hand to the LeT, maintaining that it was trying its best to limit Hafiz Saeed’s activities but the Shahbaz Sharif-led provincial government was not cooperating with the Centre.