Pak playing a problematic role in terrorist campaigns in South Asia

Lahore, Jan 31 (ANI): Pakistan continues to play a problematic role in terrorist campaigns in South Asia, because terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) are finding sanctuary in the country's turbulent Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, according to US terrorism experts.

The experts discussed the potential for future attacks during a congressional hearing on Wednesday before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security, VOA reported.

Republican Senator Susan Collins said Pakistan should be urged to take action.

"The US Government must continue to press the Pakistani Government to eliminate safe havens, and starve LeT and similar groups of new recruits for their deadly operations," she said.

Terrorism expert Brian Michael Jenkins of the RAND Corporation said terrorists were likely to continue to focus on 'soft targets' like hotels, surface transportation and other public places that were not usually subject to increased security.

Jenkins said the masterminds behind the Mumbai attacks showed a "sophisticated level of strategic thinking" during the three-day attacks.

Jenkins was quoted as saying that meticulous planning by the attackers "allowed them to achieve their objectives".

"They were able to capture and hold international attention - always an objective of terrorism. They were able to exploit India's vulnerabilities, create a political crisis in India," he said.

Speaking before the US Senate committee, Jenkins said what happened in Mumbai 'clearly showed' that al Qaeda was not the only terrorism threat in the world.

He said there were 'new contenders' that had adopted al Qaeda's ideology of global terror.

"This suggests not only a continuing terrorist campaign in India, but more broadly it suggests that the global struggle against the jihadist terrorist campaign is far from over," he said. (ANI)