WikiLeaks: Boucher, Menon disagreed on tactics regarding Pak elimination of LeT

LONDON - India’s National Security Adviser, Shiv Shankar Menon, and US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher agreed that there was a need for Pakistan to eliminate the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group, but differed on the tactics to be adopted for such an exercise.

American embassy diplomatic cables leaked by the whistle-blowing web site WikiLeaks reveal that US diplomats made repeated efforts to reassure their often frustrated Indian counterparts that Washington was working hard to pressure Islamabad to shut down the threat posed to India by Pakistan-based groups.

“The two men (Menon and Boucher) were in full agreement on the need to ensure that Pakistan eliminate Laskhar-e-Toiba, but disagreed on some tactics,” a cable reporting the meeting, as saying.

It continued: “Boucher urged Menon to “tone down” the Indian rhetoric and avoid any military movements that could be misinterpreted. Menon defended India’s strategy of publicly pressuring Pakistan’s security services, saying they had not yet made the strategic decision to cut ties with Lashkar-e-Toiba, and that the civilian government was powerless to force this change.”

The cable reports Menon telling Boucher: “Let’s not insult one another by telling a story that the Pakistan army was not involved … They’re either unwilling to take action, or incapable, or both; any way you look at it, they’re involved.”

In February this year, P Chidambaram, the Indian Minister of the Interior, told Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, that Pakistan had “done damn near nothing” to prosecute Mumbai-related terror suspects, according to the cables. (ANI)