Washington:
A top US military commander has said a close watch had to be kept on LeT, blamed for the Mumbai carnage, which may try to carry out more attacks, as he asked Pakistan to focus more on confronting Taliban and extremists within its own borders, instead of India.
"We should observe the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the group that carried out the Mumbai attacks, again, we think they're trying to do more damage, and they are trying to carry out additional attacks," General David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command, said while testifying before a Congressional Committee on Friday.
"And one would think that, again, extremists that are trying to cause that kind of tension and also to take the focus off of the internal extremist threat would indeed strive to do that," the General said.
He said the most important, most pressing threat to the very existence of Pakistan is the "threat posed by the internal extremists and groups such as the Taliban and the syndicated extremists", Petraeus said.
The Pakistani military needs to fight extremists "rather than strictly focus on the conventional threat that has been traditionally the focus of the military, to their east, which is India," he said.