US intelligence official hints at Lashkar hand
4 Dec 2008, 0106 hrs IST, ET Bureau Print EMail Discuss Share Save Comment Text: NEW DELHI: US National Intelligence director Mike McConnell has pointed to involvement of groups operating out of Pakistan in the Mumbai attack.
Although the US official did not name Lashkar-e-Toiba, he said the group that was behind the 2006 Mumbai train bombings was behind the latest attack. He was speaking at Harvard University.
The Indian government had attributed the 2006 serial bombings to the Lashkar with logistical support from home-grown Simi. McConnell is the first US official to publicly identify Lashkar as the likely perpetrator.
On Tuesday, a reports quoting senior US state department official from Washington had said that evidence suggested that the “brutal, prolonged attack had some roots in Pakistan”. At a Pentagon news conference, defence secretary Robert Gates said that chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, had gone to the region to meet with officials.
Mullen’s spokesman, Navy Capt John Kirby, said the attacks reflect a growing sophistication among extremist groups and are going to encourage a regional approach to security concerns.
These comments from the US come in the backdrop of confession by the surviving attacker that he and other nine jihadis were trained for months in terror camps run by Lashkar.
The Mumbai Police has already confirmed that militants came from Karachi. According to the police, 10 terrorists had sailed in a merchant vessel from Karachi on the high seas, before boarding Kuber, a hijacked Indian fishing boat.
After nearing Mumbai, the group left the trawler on an inflatable rubber dinghy, and landed at Budhwar Park near Cuffe Parade. The terrorists later split into five teams of two each and hailed taxis to travel to their ‘destinations’ — Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Oberoi-Trident hotel complex, Leopold Cafe, Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Nariman House. To read business stories in हिंदी click here. Print EMail Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a militant Islamic fundamentalist group based in Pakistan, has been implicated in last week's Mumbai attacks in India.

Rakesh Maria, a commissioner with the Mumbai Police, said that the sole surviving attacker, whom he identified as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, has admitted spending three months in a Lashkar-e-Toiba camp preparing the attacks. Kasab, who is reported to be 21 years old, told police that he spent a total of eighteen months training at various LeT camps.
Some of the aftermath of the attacks
Meanwhile, John Michael McConnell, the United States Director of National Intelligence, indirectly implicated LeT. In a speech at Harvard University, he said that the same group responsible for the 2006 Mumbai train bombings was behind last week's attacks. LeT has also been blamed for the attack on the Parliament of India in late 2001

"The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a similar attack in 2006 on a train and killed a similar number of people," said McConnell without naming LeT. "If you examine the groups we think are responsible, the philosophical underpinnings are very similar to what Al-Qaeda puts out as their view of how the world should be. It is a continuation."

Commissioner Maria said that the training took place in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, near the disputed Kashmir region. Kasab received very specific instructions, according to Maria.
Sites of the attacks in Mumbai
"He was told things like, 'You'll come in through this door, then go over here, then go out through that door,'" Maria told CNN's Nic Robertson. "Very, very detailed, explicit instructions. The gunmen were hand-picked, but there were no examinations per se."

India has also said that Kasab named known LeT leader, Yusuf Muzammil, as the mastermind behind the attacks.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Indian capital of New Delhi on Wednesday.

"Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency and cooperate fully and transparently," said Rice. "That message has been delivered and will be delivered to Pakistan."

Analysts cited by Reuters are saying that India will not resort to a military response over the Mumbai attacks.

"The military option has never been an option, because the military can't guarantee you an outcome," said Manoj Joshi, an editor at the ''Mail Today''. "We have been there, done it, and it doesn't work." In 2002, India threatened military action after the parliament attack.

"If you want a solution to Afghanistan, you have to lean on Pakistan to shut down all jihadist operations," said Siddharth Varadarajan, an editor at ''The Hindu''. "You have to tackle the root cause, which is the attitude of the Pakistani military. That is the silver bullet."