Remain prepared

LeT is trying to expand its focus

According to US experts, Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is spreading fast by taking in former Pakistani soldiers as recruits and may make a bid to replace al Qaeda in the wake of the killing of its supreme leader, Osama bin Laden. Testifying before a US Congress subcommittee, the security experts have told lawmakers that the LeT is trying to expand its focus by joining the fight against US forces in Afghanistan, launching terror attacks against India and participating in the global jihad. The LeT is a grand part of Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy in relation to India, with the ISI actively backing the jihadi terror group in all ways.

As arrested LeT operative David Headley has told US interrogators, the ISI was involved in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, and without support from the spy agency, the LeT would not be able to launch such sophisticated attacks. In fact the export of terror to India by way of grooming groups like the LeT is one of the greatest ISI engagements. This being the Pakistan reality, and as the thoroughly Islamist, avowedly anti-India ISI will continue to back the LeT, India must remain prepared to face all possible terror assaults.

The Sentinel, May 6