Pro Obama think tank says Pak must shut down terror training camps

Washington, Dec 19 (ANI): A pro-Obama American think tank has said that Pakistan needed to act aggressively against militant groups operating from their territory and sever all ties between all levels of the Pakistani military establishment and intelligence services with these outfits.

Caroline Wadhams, senior policy analyst for national security, Center for American Progress, said that Pakistan has still not decided to aggressively go after these Kashmiri militant groups, and that they needed to do more, but "we still have to see what happens."

Center for American Progress is a liberal political policy research and advocacy organization. It is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.

"The Pakistani leadership is still saying that they have not been given concrete evidence that these attacks were linked to Pakistan. So they need to - the evidence needs to be presented to them in a compelling way, but I think it's clear from what we've heard from the intelligence agencies that these attacks were linked to Pakistan," Caroline told ANI.

Caroline further said that the Pakistani military establishment has continued to use some of these militant groups as proxy forces against India, and because of their fears about India, they are unwilling - at least at some levels - to completely sever those ties. And this remains the problem today, she added.

Asked whether Pakistan is likely to crack down on militants, Caroline said: " It's not clear. There is much greater pressure on them to sever these linkages especially because of the nature of the Mumbai attacks - that it attacked Western targets so they've come under enormous pressure from the United States and other countries, and also that it attacked the Indian elite so there's an uproar in Indian society about this."

"So they're under much greater pressure. The other reason that they might be more inclined to deal with this and sever these contacts is because it's increasingly clear that these Kashmiri militant groups are collaborating with other militant groups that are actually attacking the Pakistani state."

"And so the Pakistani military and the civilian leadership are increasingly under threat from the militant groups, many of which are believed to be the Pakistani Taliban," Caroline told ANI.

Pakistani Taliban group is believed to be collaborating at certain levels with Lashkar-e-Taiba and other militant groups, so seeing this, the fact that they feel the impact of these groups might make them feel more inclined, she said.

But the problem is that there's still this immense distrust between India and Pakistan, and that the Pakistanis are still so fearful of India, that they still appear to want want to keep these groups around, Caroline added. (ANI)