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Headley cooperating with Indian sleuths


WASHINGTON: Asserting that the United States and India have made the "greatest progress" in terms of law-enforcement and intelligence cooperation, a key US official on Monday insisted both sides have been candid and transparent in the matter of access and interrogation of LeT terror operative David Headley.

In a review of the just-concluded US-India Strategic Dialogue, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake challenged the impression that Washington had been dodgy in allowing Indian investigators to question Headley, who is said to have scouted locations for the 26/11 massacre undertaken by the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"I would dispute your assertion that it took a long time (to allow India access to Headley). These are very sensitive matters, that we wanted to make sure that Mr Headley would be willing to talk, and so a number of things had to be worked out," Blake told correspondents at the foreign press center, indicating Headley was cooperating with the investigation by prior agreement. Indian sleuths are still questioning Headley, whose original name is Daood Gilani, in Chicago.

"Let me just say that there's been a great deal of transparency and close cooperation between our two governments. I think our Indian friends would confirm that. For obvious law-enforcement reasons, there are many things that we can't share with the press," Blake said, adding that the issue was not a focus of discussions between the two sides and in no way hijacked last week's strategic dialogue between US and India.

In the same context, Blake maintained Washington took "extremely seriously" threats against both India and US emanating from Pakistan and said it is the interests of all three countries to address this very critical problem.

"We believe that there is increasingly a syndicate that is operating in countries like Pakistan that threatens both of our countries, and Pakistan itself," Blake said, asserting that Washington has "taken a strong position on terrorism that is emanating from Pakistan soil, and that remains our very strong conviction, that it's in Pakistan's own interest to address that."

"The United States will never be soft on terrorism. This is our highest priority," Blake stressed, revealing that the US was urging Pakistan to address the problem in the Punjab with regard to Punjab-based groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, "that are operating against India, that have also targeted the United States, in the Mumbai bombings and elsewhere."

Blake also disclosed that US and India discussed ways of working together more in Afghanistan dismissing Pakistan's complaints about New Delhi's growing influence in the country in the process. He said Washington commended India's role in Afghanistan, condoled the losses it suffered there in terrorist attacks, and "reaffirmed our support for the very important work that India has undertaken there and our determination to see if we can find ways to work together."

Asked about India training Afghan personnel, Blake said "it's really up to India to decide how -- where it wants to take its cooperation from here," and the US support for India in Afghanistan "reflects the confidence we have in the partnership that we have with India and also the constructive role that it's playing."

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