A senior Clinton administration official said for the first time on Tuesday that Islamabad was giving material support to militant groups, amid news from Pakistan that the government there had permitted the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba to hold a public meeting in Lahore against the advise of the state department. The organisation also sought direct official patronage for its ongoing congregation in Muridke near Lahore by inviting President Rarar and Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf.

In Washington meanwhile, sections of the Clinton administration appeared to harden its stand against Islamabad increasingly overt support to the militants. Within the territory of Pakistan, there are numerous Kashmiri separatist groups andsectarian groups involved in terrorism which use Pakistan as a base. Pakistan has frequently acknowledged what it calls moral and diplomatic support for militants in Kashmir who employ violence and terrorism against Indian interests. We have continuing reports of Pakistani material support for some of these militants, Michael Sheehan, the administrations counterterrorism coordinator, told a Senate sub-committee on Tuesday.

This is the closest the US has come to directly implicating Pakistan in terrorism. Sheehan, in fact, specifically named Lashkar-e-Toiba among other organisations which operate freely in Pakistan and support terrorist activity in Kashmir. Sheehan said he would soon be visiting Pakistan to take up issues relating to terrorism, although the focus of his trip is going to be US efforts to bring the fugitive Osama bin Laden to justice.

But his recent visit to India to discuss the terrorism issue and the pledge to work jointly to combat the scourge lends a different dimension to the wholeaffair.

In the past, the US has never taken New Delhi's troubles with terrorism seriously, reacting only where it affects American interest. India too has been sloppy and lackadaisical in keeping the focus on crossborder terrorism. For instance, despite the fact that the serial blasts in Mumbai happened within two weeks of the World Trade Center bombing in Manhattan, successive Indian governments have never hunted down the fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, who to the Gulf and later to Pakistan.