As a team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials landed in Islamabad to probe any possible Pakistani links to the failed Times Square bombing case, the U.S. on Saturday warned Pakistan that it would face “very severe consequences” if a terror plot was traced to that country.
“We've made it very clear that if, heaven-forbid, an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the CBS news channel in an interview that is scheduled to be aired on Sunday.
Ms. Clinton said that U.S. expected more cooperation in fighting terror from the Pakistan government and warned that there could be repercussion if any future successful terror attacks in America were linked to Pakistan.
The Secretary of State said Pakistan's attitude toward fighting Islamic terrorists changed remarkably.
“We've gotten more cooperation and it's been a real sea change in the commitment we've seen from the Pakistan Government. (But) We want more. We expect more,” she said.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told PTI that “Pakistan needs to expand its operation against Punjab-based terrorist outfits including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed. Though both these terrorist groups are mainly operating against India, there has been increasing evidences of LeT and JeM now targeting against the U.S.”
A Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, was arrested on charges of plotting to explode a bomb at Times Square. He told investigating authorities that he received bomb-making training in a terrorist camp in Waziristan.
Individuals and relatives arrested in Pakistan in connection with this plot, according to media reports here, has had well established links with terrorist outfits like Pakistani Taliban and JeM. One report even said Shahzad had closed links with the master-mind of the Mumbai terrorist attack.
