New Delhi and Washington have been quietly working on cornering the LeT and its network

NEW DELHI: India and the US have acted jointly in a quiet fashion over the past year against Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terror group that New Delhi holds responsible for orchestrating most terror strikes including the 26/11 attack in Mumbai.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s reference to the LeT in her statement following the 2+2 dialogue here on Thursday indicates growing collaboration with the US against the terror group founded by Hafiz Saeed. That the LeT was the only terror group named by Swaraj in her remarks is an indication enough of concern regarding the Pak-based group.

New Delhi and Washington have been quietly working on cornering the LeT and its network, ET has learnt. India has been sharing critical inputs with the US, enabling the Trump administration to act against Lashkar operatives who are also getting in the Afghan theatre with encouragement from Pakistan’s ISI. “The idea is to work away from the public glare as this would help to attain maximum results,” pointed out a source.

Ahead of the 2+2 dialogue, the US froze assets of three Pakistanis linked with the LeT, indicating its willingness to act against the group. The State Department included Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil to its list of "specially designated global terrorists", saying he was a senior commander of the group. al-Dakhil has carried out attacks within India.

The US Treasury simultaneously targeted Hameed ul Hassan and Abdul Jabbar, who it said were responsible for funnelling money to Lashkar-e-Taiba and paying salaries to its members.

"Treasury's designations not only aim to expose and shut down Lashkar-e ‘Tayyiba's’ financial network, but also to curtail its ability to raise funds to carry out violent terrorist attacks," Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement, using an alternate spelling of the group's name. The designation means all properties belonging to the men subject to US jurisdiction are blocked and Americans are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The latest designations came after the US expressed “deep reservations” over the participation of terrorist-affiliated individuals in Pakistan’s general elections on July 25. Candidates backed by the Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) contested the polls through the Allahu Akbar Tehreek, while the Sunni extremist group Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat also fielded candidates.

Actions against the LeT is also essential for the Modi government as the tenth anniversary of the Mumbai attack draws near. LeT founder and now JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, chief architect of 26/11, is still unscathed by the pressure mounted by the US. The actions during the past one year though have squeezed his space, said the source. Grey listing of Pakistan by the Financial Action Task Force or FATF with strong support from the US and supported by all other P-5 members is expected to further squeeze space for the LeT in the Af-Pak region.