Mumbai attack puts focus on Pakistan militant link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

The militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks has roots in the disputed Kashmir region where Pakistan’s military has faced off against India for decades.

There have long been suspicions that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services helped create, arm and train Lashkar-e-Taiba as a proxy force against India’s much larger military.

Though ties between the militant group and Pakistan’s army have never been firmly established, the issue is coming under fresh scrutiny and could determine India’s response to the terror attacks.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied any connection to the group.

Any evidence linking the Mumbai attackers to the Pakistani leadership would raise tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors after years of attempts to mend relations. In a worst-case scenario, it could push India’s government to mobilize troops along the border or even bomb militant targets within Pakistan.

The only surviving gunman told police he is Pakistani and trained at a Lashkar camp in Pakistan, according to Indian security officials; Indian leaders have also blamed “elements within Pakistan” for the strikes.

The Islamabad government acknowledges the attackers may be Pakistani or may even have trained on its soil, but insists they did so without its knowledge. Government leaders have also repeatedly noted they too are fighting a bloody war against Islamic militants.

The Pakistani government banned Lashkar in 2002 amid pressure from Washington following the Sept. 11 attacks. Since then most analysts say infiltration by militants into Indian-held Kashmir has decreased.

But a senior Pakistani government official acknowledged individuals among the lower-ranks of the intelligence agencies may sympathize with groups like Lashkar, which has been linked to al-Qaeda and whose members are believed to be involved in attacks against the government and army close to the Afghan border.

“Maybe one or two individuals are allowing things to happen,” but there is no officially sanctioned connection to the militants, said the official, who asked not to be identified because it would compromise his work.

The situation is further muddied because many people question whether Pakistan’s civilian government, which was elected in February ending nine years of military rule, is in full control of the army and intelligence agencies.

Relations between the military government under President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and jihadi groups deteriorated following the July 2007 assault on the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which left scores of militants dead. The mosque was historically used as a jumping off point for militants en route to the fight in Kashmir.

Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have died in a spike in suicide bombings since the mosque assault. A Pakistani army operation in the Bajur border region that began in September has also targeted militant hideouts, some of them belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to military officials in the area.

But defense analyst Aysha Siddiqa said it appears the military still tolerates Lashkar and a related group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, especially in southern Punjab province, where both groups have their base.

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