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Ban will limit JuD capacity: U.S.

Washington: Hailing the ban on Pakistani organisation the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) by the U.N., the U.S. on Thursday said the action would limit the ability of the group and its affiliate, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to plan new terrorist attacks and acquire weapons.

“The U.N. Security Council action would serve as a tool to help member states deter activities of Al-Qaeda and its affiliated group,” said a statement by a U.S. official. “These actions will limit the ability of known terrorists to travel, acquire weapons, plan, carry out, or raise funds for new terrorist attacks,” it said.

Pakistan’s crackdown on radical elements in the country was also taken note of by top U.S. administration agencies, with Pentagon chief Admiral Mike Mullen also praising the restraint shown by India in the face of gravest terror attacks in Mumbai. While acknowledging that Pakistani forces had acted to curb the activities of the terrorist groups, Admiral Mullen held that many more such steps would be taken by Islamabad. Saying there is a strong desire for justice on the part of the people of India, he expressed gratefulness of the U.S. for the restraint shown by India. “I will not go so far as to say that tensions were then or are now completely eased in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. You can imagine... the degree to which fear and uncertainty have gripped the Indian people and just how strong was their desire for justice,” he said at a Pentagon news briefing.

His comments come as U.S. experts say that the commando-style siege by LeT militants in Mumbai had raised new concerns about the methods used and possibility of the operation being conducted independent of Al-Qaeda. U.S. experts say in the Mumbai attacks, there could be a possibility of a new global terrorist organisation on the lines of Al-Qaeda emerging.

Admiral Mullen said he was encouraged by news out of Islamabad that the military has captured and detained several militants, including a key leader of the LeT group.

“These are great steps. I certainly hope and expect there will be more such steps taken by Pakistani authorities in the near future. It’s going to be some time before we know all the details behind the Mumbai attacks, perhaps even longer before we completely understand exact motives and goals,” he said, adding: “But it shouldn’t be lost on anyone how a handful of well-trained terrorists, using fairly unsophisticated tools in a highly sophisticated manner, held at bay an entire city and nearly brought to a boil interstate tensions between two nuclear powers.”

Asked if he is satisfied with what has been done by Pakistan so far, he said: “In these initial arrests, they’ve gotten some of the right people, significant players with respect to Lashkar-e-Taiba.”

“These are first steps, and so there are more steps to follow. But they’ve moved pretty quickly with respect to these arrests, with respect to shutting down some of the camps, and all that, I think, is very positive,” he said.

He was asked if he believed Pakistan is serious this time given the fact that LeT terrorists have been rounded up only to be released without being charged with anything in the past. “I certainly hope we don’t [repeat history] in that regard, but that’s one of the realities of where we are. And we’ll see how we move forward in the future,” he said. “I’m not going to go into the specific things that we [meaning with Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani] talk about. Again, these are private meetings. But certainly... the central issue was the attacks on Mumbai and the association of those attacks with terrorists who came from Pakistan and that steps needed to be taken with respect to them,” he said. — PTI

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