An ideal proxy for Pakistan: US expert

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 thinktank. “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 proState. 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 author of the book ‘In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-eTaiba.’

Responding to a question, Fair said 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. 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 clamp down 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.