WASHINGTON: Reinforcing India's assertion that the Mumbai terror attacks had Pakistani links, the US intelligence chief has pointed his finger at the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT) over the deadly strikes. US National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's remarks in an address to the Harvard university came hours after India announced that it had demanded the handing over of LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad and other fugitives in Pakistan in the wake of Mumbai attacks that killed 183 people, including six Americans.

 "The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a similar attack in 2006 on a train and killed a similar number of people," McConnell said. "Go back to 2001 and it was an attack on the (Indian) Parliament." McConnell did not identify the group by name but New Delhi has pinned the 2006 attacks on Mumbai commuter trains that killed 187 people to the LeT, a Pakistan-based terrorist group.

The 2001 attack on Indian Parliament that pushed India and Pakistan on the brink of war was also blamed on LeT apart from Jaish-e Muhammad, another Pakistan-based militant outfit. McConnell is the first US official to publicly identify LeT as the likely group behind the latest Mumbai attacks. But since the time of the attacks counter-terrorism specialists have been of the view that one of the most likely "candidates" for the Mumbai strikes was the LeT; and a general is consensus that there was indeed a Pakistan connection irrespective of what has been dished out by officials and leaders in Islamabad and their representatives overseas. The LeT is banned the US since 2001.

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