US tells Pakistan to act with urgency

NEW YORK: The White House called on Pakistan on Thursday to move forcefully against domestic terrorist groups and cooperate “fully and transparently” with India on the probe into the Mumbai terror attack.

In its role as a self-appointed peace broker, the US hopes to quiet India-Pakistan tensions. And realising that the attack on Mumbai is the third major terrorist attack against Americans, and foreigners in South Asia this year, the US had made a series of commitments to India of putting pressure on Islamabad to smash terror camps. It failed to deliver during the December 2001 parliament attack, but this time, the stakes are higher. It may redouble its efforts as Americans were obvious targets in the terror attacks on Mumbai.

“It’s horrible enough that it happened to innocent Indians and also citizens from 10 different countries,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, “but six of our own citizens were killed, and so we take this very seriously.”

“Pakistan needs to act with resolve, urgency. They need to cooperate fully and also keep the line of communication open between their country and India,” she said.

“We will continue to try to help make that happen,” Perino stressed as US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who just visited India and Pakistan, called back with updates to the White House.

Perino said Rice was “encouraged by what she heard from the Pakistanis and she’s going to continue to push them.”

There can be no doubt that a jittery US wants to “push” Pakistan into action. It certainly has elements of self-preservation.

Shortly after news spread that terrorists had launched an attack on Mumbai, 75 blue-and-white police cars carrying 150 NYPD officers fanned out across New York lights flashing to shore up security with a show of force outside the Waldorf Astoria, New York Palace and other marquee hotels. “I think that this could be a wake-up call,” Robert Grenier, a former CIA official with the Kroll Security Group, told AP.

On its part, the US Treasury has already asked financial institutions to freeze the assets of four top Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders. One of the Lashkar leaders was Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who surviving Mumbai attacker Mohammed Ajmal Kasab said helped indoctrinate all the attackers.

Also named by the Treasury were Lashkar group leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed who set up the sprawling Markaz campus for preaching militant Islam and financial planners Haji Muhammad Ashraf and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq. The US has frozen nearly $33 million in assets of groups involved in funneling money to suspected terrorist organisations.

In the weeks to come, Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil are also likely to join Osama bin Laden in the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list as growing evidence links them inextricably to the Mumbai attacks.
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