US feels next Taliban offensive may emanate from FATA

Washington, Mar.12 (ANI); The United States feels the next offensive from the Taliban against it would emanate from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan."The central nervous system for the planning (of an attack on the US soil) would emanate from FATA," the Dawn quoted Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, as asking during a hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the United States.

The Director of US National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, replied in the affirmative. akistan has come under the scanner in a US Senate hearing this week, as both officials and senators have repeatedly accused Islamabad of allowing terrorists to use its soil for planning attacks on the United States.

Two key US officials - director national intelligence and director military intelligence - told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan has allowed Taliban to operate freely from Quetta while the tribal areas have become a 'central nervous system' for al-Qaeda.

US lawmakers and officials also said that Lashkar-e-Taiba has the ideological commitment to replace al-Qaeda as the next major terrorist group in the world.

They said that the Pakistani establishment and intelligence agencies had taken some measures against the Lashkar recently but were not cooperating fully with the United States in dealing with this threat.

The committee was also told that the Lashkar had supporters among the Pakistanis living in the United States who could abet its efforts to carry out a terrorist attack in North America. (ANI)