India, Pak begin sharing intelligence inputs after much US persuasion

Washington, May 21 (ANI): India and Pakistan have started sharing intelligence inputs regarding Islamic extremists amid continuous persuasion from the United States, a report in a leading US daily said.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranged for Pakistan and India to share information on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the outlawed accused of carrying out the Mumbai 26/11 attacks.

The arrangement would also see Islamabad sharing information about the top Taliban commanders who are leading the insurgency inside Pakistan.

Washington is hoping that when New Delhi sees the intelligence and evidence that Islamabad is seriously fighting against the militants, it will ease the deployment of troops against Pakistan, which would prompt Pakistan to focus more on its internal threat rather than India.

"We have to satisfy the Mumbai question, and show India that the threat is abating," the newspaper quoted an official involved in developing US' South Asia strategy, as saying.

"We're not going to tell them everything we know and they're not going to tell us everything they know. Nobody expects that to happen, but we're talking about the attack. We weren't doing that in December," he added.

The Obama administration has expressed its concerns over LeT's plans to carry out a second strike against India to ignite a war between the two neighboring countries. (ANI)