Bloomberg.com
Brown Links U.K. Terror Threats to Pakistan-Based Extremists
By Kitty Donaldson and James Rupert
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown said three quarters of all terrorist plots investigated in the U.K. are linked to Pakistan-based Muslim extremists, and offered $8.9 million to help Pakistan tackle the causes of radicalization.
Brown met Pakistani President Asif Zardari today after talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in India, where he became the first foreign leader to directly accuse a Pakistan- based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, of being behind the terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed 164 people last month.
Visiting South Asia after similar tours by top U.S. officials, Brown endorsed U.S. declarations that Pakistan must act quickly against the Mumbai plotters and that Zardari seems committed to doing so.
"The time has come for action and not words and I want to help Pakistan and other countries root out terrorism," Brown told a joint press conference with Zardari in Islamabad. His talks with Zardari "have reassured me that his authorities are determined to act against those who are behind the Mumbai attacks."
U.K. police are set to question Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the alleged lone surviving terrorist in the Mumbai attacks who is being held in India, a British government source briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said. Brown sought permission during his talks with Singh today and repeated the request in Islamabad.
Pakistan, which banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, meaning The Army of the Pure, seven years ago, detained its leaders last week. It has declined to say that it had any role in the Mumbai attacks.
No Evidence
Zardari said Pakistan has been given no evidence of a role by its citizens in the Nov. 26-29 assault in Mumbai.
"I'm hoping that once the Indian government completes the investigation and shares the information with us, we'll have further leads to further find if there are any culprits on this side of the border," he said. "We shall take action against them."
The Mumbai attacks rekindled tensions between the nuclear- armed neighbors, which have fought three wars against each other since independence in 1947, twice over Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between them and claimed in full by both.
India today denied Pakistan Air Force claims that Indian military jets violated Pakistani airspace yesterday, and Zardari today sought to defuse the dispute. He described the incident as a "technical incursion" as Indian planes were turning.
"Such incursions do happen," he said. The media "have been trying to sell bad news, and I'd appreciate if they didn't."
Lashkar-e-Taiba
The role of Lashkar-e-Taiba is sensitive for Pakistan because the group received weapons and logistical support from the main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, for attacks in Indian Kashmir in 1990s, according to Indian and U.S. officials and independent Pakistani analysts. Pakistan denied any involvement in those attacks.
Pakistan's former ruling general, Pervez Musharraf, banned the group in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., but failed to shut down its operations, says Harvard University researcher Hassan Abbas.
Brown announced aid of 6 million pounds ($8.9 million) to educate people away from joining extremist groups and strengthen Pakistan's democratic institutions. He also pledged help for Pakistan's bomb-disposal teams, forensic investigators and airport security. "Three quarters of the most serious plots investigated by the British authorities have links to al-Qaeda in Pakistan," he said.
'Terrorist Elements'
Twenty-six foreigners were among those killed in the attacks on two luxury hotel complexes, a Jewish center, a cafe, a hospital and a railway station in India's financial capital. The Indian parliament on Dec. 11 adopted a resolution condemning the attacks by "terrorist elements" from Pakistan.
The targeting of Westerners marks a shift in tactics for Islamic militants in India as they strike the international links that have helped the country's economy grow at an average 8.9 percent in the past four years.
Pakistan's economic crisis has deepened its vulnerability to international pressures for it to crack down on Lashkar-e- Taiba, the Taliban and al-Qaeda, which have strongholds in the country's western border region with Afghanistan.
Last month Pakistan took a $7.6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund after its foreign reserves dropped 75 percent in a year to $3.45 billion. Economic growth may slow to as little as 3 percent this fiscal year, the IMF said, from an average of 7.5 percent from 2003 through 2006.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1 at bloomberg.net; James Rupert in Islamabad at jrupert3 at bloomberg.net. Last Updated: December 14, 2008 08:16 EST
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