'There is an increased level of concern about where the LeT is and where it appears to be headed. It is something we all have to address,' he said.
Alarmed that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for the Mumbai attacks, has expanded its operations to Afghanistan and the West, top US military commander Mike Mullen has said the terror group has become more active and sought concerted action against it.
"I've watched the LeT (grow) since the end of 2008, move to the West, become more active in other countries, more active throughout the region, more engaged with other terrorist groups," Mullen, who arrived in Islamabad yesterday from India to meet the leadership and military officials, told a group of journalists last night.
Besides expanding to the West, the LeT is in Afghanistan (and) other countries, Mullen, Chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said in response to questions.
He said that there is a "heightened concern about (LeT's) emergence and what is significant (is its) emergence not only on the regional stage but potentially as a terror organisation with global aspirations".
"There is an increased level of concern about where the LeT is and where it appears to be headed. It is something we all have to address," he said.
Mullen initially tried to parry a question on whether he had raised America's concerns about the LeT with Pakistan's leadership by saying that everyone would have to work together to address the threat posed by the group.
In response to a pointed question on the same issue, he indicated that he had raised the matter with the Pakistani leadership on more than one occasion.
"I tried to make the case that the LeT is a growing threat, it is an organisation that is becoming more lethal. (This has been) proven so and it is not just operating where it used to be. It's expanding, it is in the West, it is in Afghanistan, it is in other countries. All of us have to be concerned about it," he said.
India says that the LeT, which was founded by terrorist leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, was behind the 2008 Mumbai carnage and wants Islamabad to take action against terrorism emanating from its soil against India.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD, headed by Saeed, acts as a front for the LeT which was banned during the tenure of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. JuD was also outlawed by the UN in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
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