U.S. intelligence focuses on Lashkar in wake of Mumbai terror attack

Washington, Nov.29 : American intelligence and counter-terrorism officials said on Friday that there was mounting evidence that a Pakistani militant group based in Kashmir, most likely the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for this week's deadly attacks in Mumbai.

The New York Times quoted them as saying that while they had reached no firm conclusions about who was responsible for the attacks, or how they were planned and carried out, they said that evidence gathered in the past two days pointed to a role for Lashkar-e-Taiba or possibly another group based in Kashmir, Jaish-e-Muhammad, which also has a track record of attacks against India.

The officials requested anonymity in describing their current thinking and declined to discuss specifics of the intelligence that they said pointed to Kashmiri militants.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any responsibility for the terrorist strikes.

Officials in Washington said Friday that there was no evidence that the Pakistani government had any role in the attacks. But if evidence were to emerge that the operation had been planned and directed from within Pakistan, that would escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, and could even provoke an Indian military response, even strikes against militants' training camps.

Senior Bush administration officials are seeking to keep the tensions from boiling over.

ANI