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The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has accused Al Qaeda for assisting Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to plot attacks in India to provoke a conflict between India and Pakistan.
"Al Qaeda is supportive of Lashkar-e-Taiba... Al Qaeda is providing them with targeting information and helping them in their plotting in India, clearly with the idea of provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan that would destabilise Pakistan," told the Defence Secretary to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.
"Al Qaeda provides them with technical information, provides them with operational information and support," he added.
He also mentioned, "Al Qaeda is at the heart of it. And whether or not the terrorists are home grown, when we trace their roots, they almost all end up back in this border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, whether they're from the United States or Somalia or the United Kingdom or elsewhere."
The US Defence Secretary also asserted saying that he recognizes the Pakistani reading of the US-Pakistan alliance and it will not turn its back on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"With respect to Pakistan: Because of American withdrawal from the region in the early 1990s, followed by a severing of military-to-military relations, many Pakistanis are sceptical that the United States is a reliable, long-term strategic partner," he said. "We must change that perception."
