WikiLeaks: Pakistan continues to support Mumbai terror attack group
Source: Telegraph
Pakistan continues to support the militant group which carried out the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai despite its claims to have launched a crackdown on the organisation, the United States Ambassador to Islamabad wrote in a cable.
Ten Lashkar e Taiba 'fedayeen' commandos killed 166 in a three day attack on Mumbai in 2008 Photo: PA
In a review of Washington's strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, its ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, said Pakistan was supporting four militant groups, including the Taliban's Haqqani network and the Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) terror group, and could not be persuaded to abandon them.
The Haqqani network is based in North Waziristan, from where it launches attacks on Nato forces over the border in Afghanistan. The LeT has been nurtured by Pakistan's ISI intelligence service to carry out proxy attacks on India to put pressure on New Delhi to negotiate the future of Kashmir.
Pakistan has denied Indian claims that elements in its security forces trained and funded the ten Lashkar e Taiba 'fedayeen' commandos who killed 166 in their three day attack on Mumbai in 2008. Under international pressure following the attack it arrested several senior LeT leaders and put its founder Hafiz Saeed under house arrest.
But in a cable to Washington in September last year, the ambassador said "no amount of money" could persuade Islamabad to turn its back on these terrorist groups.
"There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India. The only way to achieve a cessation of such support is to change the Pakistan government's own perception of its security requirements," she wrote.
She said Washington should reconsider its support for Indian aid in Afghanistan which causes anxiety within Pakistan's military and reinforces its relationship with terrorist groups.
"It is the perception of India as the primary threat to the Pakistani state that colors its perceptions of the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan's security needs. The Pakistani establishment fears a pro-India government in Afghanistan would allow India to operate a proxy war against Pakistan from its territory. Justified or not, increased Indian investment in, trade with, and development support to the Afghan government, which the USG [United States Government] has encouraged, causes Pakistan to embrace Taliban groups all the more closely as anti-India allies. We need to reassess Indian involvement in Afghanistan and our own policies towards India, including the growing military relationship through sizeable conventional arms sales, as all of this feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them closer to both Afghan and Kashmir-focused terrorist groups while reinforcing doubts about U.S. intentions," she wrote.
The United States should also consider new initiatives on resolving the Kashmir dispute which she said was "at the core of Pakistan's support for terrorist groups." B. Raman, an Indian security analyst and former official in India's Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency, said the cables disclosed by WikiLeaks had only confirmed what India already knew.
"It is a known fact that Pakistan is behind the LeT. It was created by the ISI. The WikiLeaks cables show that Pakistan's policy is to help the Americans where they have to and to continue using terrorists against India. That continues," he said.
The Pakistan government has previously denied it now supports Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"There is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance levels in any field as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups, which it sees as an important part of its national security apparatus against India. The only way to achieve a cessation of such support is to change the Pakistan government's own perception of its security requirements," she wrote.
She said Washington should reconsider its support for Indian aid in Afghanistan which causes anxiety within Pakistan's military and reinforces its relationship with terrorist groups.
"It is the perception of India as the primary threat to the Pakistani state that colors its perceptions of the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan's security needs. The Pakistani establishment fears a pro-India government in Afghanistan would allow India to operate a proxy war against Pakistan from its territory. Justified or not, increased Indian investment in, trade with, and development support to the Afghan government, which the USG [United States Government] has encouraged, causes Pakistan to embrace Taliban groups all the more closely as anti-India allies. We need to reassess Indian involvement in Afghanistan and our own policies towards India, including the growing military relationship through sizeable conventional arms sales, as all of this feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them closer to both Afghan and Kashmir-focused terrorist groups while reinforcing doubts about U.S. intentions," she wrote.
The United States should also consider new initiatives on resolving the Kashmir dispute which she said was "at the core of Pakistan's support for terrorist groups." B. Raman, an Indian security analyst and former official in India's Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency, said the cables disclosed by WikiLeaks had only confirmed what India already knew.
"It is a known fact that Pakistan is behind the LeT. It was created by the ISI. The WikiLeaks cables show that Pakistan's policy is to help the Americans where they have to and to continue using terrorists against India. That continues," he said.
The Pakistan government has previously denied it now supports Lashkar-e-Taiba.
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