WASHINGTON, April 25 (AFP) - The banned Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for last year's Mumbai attacks, is planning to sow further unrest, the commander of US forces in the Middle East said.
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| Mumbai attack |
"We should observe that the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group LeT that carried out the Mumbai attacks, we think they're trying to do more damage and they're trying to to carry out additional attacks," General David Petraeus told US lawmakers.
Some 166 people died and more than 300 were injured when 10 heavily armed gunmen rampaged through Mumbai in November, attacking two luxury hotels, the main railway station, a Jewish center and other targets.
Nine of the attackers were killed in the assault, a tenth man is to stand trial in India.
India, the United States and Britain have blamed the attacks on the LeT, an underground group active in the disputed Kashmir region. The group has denied any involvement.
Warning of further attacks, Petraeus said the US expected "that extremists that are trying to cause that kind of tension and also to take (Pakistan's) focus off of the internal extremist threat would indeed strive to do that." The November carnage triggered new tensions between India and Pakistan just as Washington was trying to convince Islamabad to focus on the insurgency in its border areas with Afghanistan. |
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