US gives Pak list of terror groups to act upon

The United States has asked Pakistan to widen its ongoing crackdown on banned terrorist outfits to those linked with subversive activities in India, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, while assuring that it would work with New Delhi to defuse the tension generated by the Mumbai terror attacks.

This message was conveyed by visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte during his meetings in Islamabad with Pakistan's top leadership, diplomatic sources said.

The sources said Negroponte had brought with him a list of terror groups, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and its front organisation Jamat-ud-Dawah, JeM and Al Rashid Trust, against whom the US wanted action to be taken.

The Dawn newspaper reported on Friday that Negroponte had shared the list with his

Pakistani interlocutors. The list also contains names of lesser known groups like the Pasban Ahle-e-Hadith.

Negroponte told Pakistani leaders that if Pakistan and India 'did not act sagaciously to contain the fallout from the Mumbai carnage, the peace of the whole region would be affected', the newspaper reported.

The US diplomat reportedly asked his interlocutors in Islamabad to continue action against the LeT and to expand the scope of the operations to other 'groups that may be linked with subversive activities in India', the report said.

Sources said that Negroponte assured the Pakistani leadership that the US would work with both countries to defuse the tensions generated by the Mumbai attacks and to prevent any military action as long as Pakistan continued taking action against banned terror groups.