Lashkar-e-Tayyaba threat revived after Chicago arrest

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Analyst says LT ‘committed to India-first approach, but also poses threat to West’

LONDON: The arrest of two men in Chicago on terrorism charges linked to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) has revived fears about the Pakistan-based militant group's global reach and its ability to plot attacks in India and around the world.

David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested last month and accused of plotting an attack on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which ran blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in 2005, US authorities said in court documents.

According to the court documents, they discussed their plans with members of LT and Al Qaeda linked terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri. Lashkar also talked to them about possible attacks in India and suggested these should be given priority over the alleged plot in Denmark.

Neither Headley, a US citizen who had spent time in Pakistan, nor Rana, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan, have yet entered pleas. Officials have long worried that Lashkar, blamed for the attacks on Mumbai, could use its big network of support in the Pakistani diaspora to hit Western targets. The Chicago case showed quite how powerful that network could be. And it suggested the group was still actively planning attacks in India and raised fears it could use Western nationals who might escape police attention to strike there.

Links: Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram told the Washington Post that Indian police were investigating whether the two men had links to the Mumbai attack.

"Chicago really exemplifies the group's capabilities and the leadership's priorities," said Washington-based analyst Stephen Tankel, who is writing a book on the group.

Real threat: Lashkar “remains committed to an India-first approach, but also poses a real threat to the West”, he said. “LT is no longer a Pakistani movement with only a Kashmir political or military agenda. LT is a member of Al Qaeda," former French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere said last week.

India broke off formal peace talks with Pakistan after the assault on Mumbai and is still pressing Pakistan to dismantle Lashkar's infrastructure and training camps. "The interesting thing it (the Chicago case) points to is how fluid these networks are," said Praveen Swami, a Kashmir specialist at India's The Hindu newspaper. Lashkkar could even try to combine the double objective of striking India as well as Westerners by attacking western targets within India itself. reuters

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_33