In unconfirmed raid, Pakistan seizes Mumbai attack ringleader

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that US intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Pakistan's spy agency had helped train and fund Lashkar-e-Taiba. The report said US officials were now investigating those links and rethinking the threat from LeT.

American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks.

As a result of the assault on Mumbai, India's financial hub, American counterterrorism and military officials say they are reassessing their view of Lashkar and believe it to be more capable and a greater threat than they had previously recognized.

In a commentary for Dawn, Ahmad Faruqui wrote that the Mumbai attackers may have hoped to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan over disputed Kashmir and strengthen extremists in both governments.

They wanted to send a clear and strong signal to the incoming Obama administration in Washington that Kashmir was a live issue that needed to be put on the front burner, ahead of Afghanistan and ahead of Iraq.

But yesterday, near Peshawar along Pakistan's western border, militants attacked 160 trucks and Humvees heading to Afghanistan, The Christian Science Monitor reported. Today, militants torched some 50 NATO vehicles in a terminal close to the city. The attacks demonstrate a ramping-up of militants' efforts on all fronts, The Monitor reports.

...As the world focuses on Pakistan's eastern border with India, the militant threat along its western border is still spreading.

Sunday's attack marks an intensification of a militant strategy: attacking US and NATO supply lines. Some 70 percent of their equipment in Afghanistan comes through Pakistan.

At the same time, militants are pushing outward from tribal areas toward Peshawar in a "surge" of their own – trying to make headway before President-elect Obama takes office and sends more troops to Afghanistan.

Previous

1 | 2 | 3