Islamabad:
The Lashkar-e-Taiba is more than an anti-India terror group as it has "global aspirations" and has extended its reach to the West, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has said.
The US is worried about the growing outreach of terror groups based in Pakistan, including the LeT, Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Tehrik-e-Taliban and their strong linkages with al-Qaeda,
Mullen said during an interaction with the media in Islamabad yesterday.
"The LeT is much more than an eastern Pakistan (based) threat just focussed on India because we've seen them in the West and I see them with global aspirations," America's top
military official said.
"What I worry about all these organisations, whether it is (the) Haqqani (network), al-Qaeda, LeT, JuD there is a syndication which has occurred in the region here over the course of the last three years, which is more and more worrisome," he said.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Hakimullah Mehsud too has "espoused aspirations outside the region," Mullen said.
There is "more syndication" of the terror groups with similar interests than in the past and they are swiftly building on their capabilities in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said.
Mullen is believed to have raised the US military's concerns during his meetings yesterday with Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne and Pakistan
Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. During interactions with the Pakistani media, Mullen further warned that that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's continued links with the Haqqani militant network, based in North Waziristan tribal region, are at the core of Pakistan's strained and problematic relations with the United States.
"Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners (in Afghanistan). And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen," Mullen said.
JuD chief and LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who made a public appearance at a meeting of political and religious parties in Islamabad on Thursday to condemn the desecration of the Quran by an American pastor, dismissed Mullen's contention. Asked about concerns expressed by US officials like Admiral Mullen about the LeT and its alleged links to al
Qaeda, Saeed said: "Go and ask Mike Mullen about this. The LeT is a group from Kashmir and you can go there and ask them about it. We are working in Pakistan and you can
ask me about my work." He claimed the "US propaganda machine is working against Islam and against those who are serving Islam".
He said, "Even those of us who carry out relief work are being called terrorists. This is a propaganda conspiracy and there is no truth in it."
Pakistan has not acted on India's repeated demands for action against Saeed, blamed for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people, including several
Americans. Islamabad has called on New Delhi to provide proof linking Saeed to the attacks.