New Delhi
22 March 2010
New Delhi and Washington are expected to review counter-terrorism
cooperation during a visit here by Daniel Benjamin, the US State Department's
coordinator for counter-terrorism.
The US official will be in India for five days, until March 26.
The discussions will take place amid anxiety here over the US attitude towards Pakistan,
made worse in recent times by its apparent indifference to encourage India to pursue the
investigation of Mumbai terrorist attacks to a logical conclusion.
What has compounded New Delhi's worries is Washington's reluctance to either part
with either David Coleman Headley, a conspirator of the Mumbai attacks, or information
about the plot that would have exposed Pakistan's duplicity.
The 26/11 dossiers given by India to Pakistan mention Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) chief
Hafiz Saeed as the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks but Islamabad has done nothing
to disrupt, dismantle and defeat it.
By his own admission, Mr Benjamin has said the LeT is one terrorist group that keeps
him awake the most. In remarks attributed to him, he also noted that the LeT has a lot
more men under arms than Al-Qaeda has.
Mr Benjamin is understood to have concluded a visit to Pakistan where he discussed the
war on terror and the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue to be held on March 24 in
Washington.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood
Qureshi will co-chair the first US-Pakistan strategic dialogue, which will be attended by
Pakistan army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani and ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha.
The US counter-terrorism coordinator's visit here will follow that of Robert Blake, the US
assistant secretary of state for south and central asian affairs, who held consultations
with external affairs ministry officials to prepare for the US-India strategic dialogue in
Washington later this year.
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