Lashkar-e-Taiba an ideal proxy for Pakistan: US expert Christine Fair

Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist outfit, is a "perfect proxy" for Pakistan's spy agency ISI, a leading American expert on security issues has said. Literally, the Pakistan Army trains, the LeT personnel, Christine Fair from the Georgetown University said during a roundtable at the Hudson Institute think-tank. "Which is why they are so competent," she said on Tuesday in an apparent reference to some of the high-profile terrorist strikes inside India. "And they are very pro-state. So, in some ways, LeT was made that way. LeT is an ideal proxy. LeT is as close as you get to a perfect proxy," said Fair who is the author of the book 'In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Taiba.' Lashkar has close links with banned Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and is responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

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Responding to a question, Fair said that she supported the government's decision to revoke Article 370 from the Indian Constitution. "I supported getting rid of Article 370 because I'm a constitutionalist. And because I think Article 370 was a derogatory, discriminatory legal regime," she said. "Personally, I'm confused as to how Article 370 became the cornerstone of Kashmiri Muslim integrity, when the whole point of having it was to actually enshrine Hindu Dogra rule as politics left the domain of Maharaja Hari Singh and migrated to the National Conference," she said.

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Having said this, Fair told the Hudson roundtable that the Indians have not been very wise about how they've handled everything related to it. "I understand security clampdown is necessary because the Pakistanis would certainly make it. I also understand there was no other way of doing it," she said, adding that the Pakistanis would never let that happen if the Indians tried to do this through a dialogue process.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India especially in the United States over the Kashmir issue, which New Delhi has categorically said was its "internal matter". "So, I think the real question comes, is what happens when this oppressive lid is taken off. Because what they're doing in the short term, they're keeping things calm, but by suppressing legitimate democratic descent, by legal means they're creating themselves a very bad environment. So, when this is pulled off as it must at some point, it will be easily exploited," Fair said.

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