Pak must do more to fight terror: Roemer

The United States on Wednesday said Pakistan must take action against Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and its founder Hafiz Sayeed but asked India to understand that Islamabad is an important ally in its fight against terrorism. The US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer also promised that his country will take a “hard look” at the assistance being given to the country.

Roemer said Pakistan must do more in terms of progress and results in trial of Mumbai attack case in that country. “They (terrorists) killed scores of Indians (in 26/11 attack), they killed six Americans. If (Pakistan) must do more and making sure that people like (LeT operative Zaki-ur- Rehman) Lakhvi stay in prison. It must do more...” he said after meeting Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Roemer said the US continues to put pressure on Pakistan to act against LeT and do more on the outfit's founder Hafiz Saeed but it is a fact that Pakistan has “taken more injuries and more dust” to their forces while fighting the terrorists.

Saying Pakistan needs to do more against terrorists, Roemer said it had to be seen whether Islamabad was using funds given by US in a “proper way.”

“Congress is going to engage in I think two very fundamentally important tasks in the weeks ahead. One will be as we share or sell certain military equipment to Pakistan, is that being used in the proper way to take on counter terrorism efforts”, he said.

“We have seen over the past 18 months Pakistan has stepped up those efforts to target al Qaeda leadership and degrade the leadership. Are they doing enough on Lashkar-e-Tayyeba? Are they doing enough on Mumbai trials? Are they doing enough on Hafiz Saeed and (Zakiur Rehman) Lakhvi? No, they need to do more,” he said.

FBI cancels visit

Robert Muller, the director of FBI, has cancelled his trip to India and other countries owing to security reasons post-Osama bin Laden killing, official sources said. Muller was to visit India this week.