LeT 'in same rank as Qaeda

NEW DELHI (AFP) - The US Homeland Security chief said on Friday she viewed the banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as an equal in danger to the Al-Qaeda network. Janet Napolitano, speaking on a trip to New Delhi where she met top Indian security officials, was asked about the threat posed by the group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. It is one that seeks to harm people and the US perspective is that the LeT is an organisation which is in the same ranks of Al-Qaeda-related groups, Napolitano told reporters after day-long talks in New Delhi. Napolitano said the US had worked with India on investigations into the Mumbai attacks and would grant Indian investigators further access to David Coleman Headley who helped plot the Mumbai attacks. and is the key government witness in the trial of an alleged accomplice. The United States has given India full access to the witness and once the case (trial) is over more access will be given. It is an example of how our two countries operate, she said.

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