Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar e Toiba’s ‘foreign operatives’, David C. Headley alias Daood Gilani and Canadian Pakistani Tahawwur Hussain Rana activities in India, including the former staying in Mumbai’s Taj and Trident hotels and many earlier inputs about them coming from the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team cooperating closely with India's Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing, after repeated lies, deceit and dodging by Pakistan are like some light at the end of the tunnel. Other recent indicators of the US distinctly raising its levels of cooperation with India are some statements by US leaders and the joint military exercises.

During his mid-October, '09 visit to Kolkata, US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer, repeating US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ description of the Pak-Afghan border as the epicentre of ‘radical extremism’, to media persons,  said: " We share the common concern that India felt on Nov 26 last year as we felt on 9/11 when our country was attacked...It is very important that Pakistan prosecute successfully the seven Mumbai suspects and take facts and evidence about Hafiz Saeed and prosecute him.’ The ambassador said the US was working closely with India and in ‘unprecedented ways’ to share information, intelligence and on improving ‘the trust that was established when the FBI came to India to testify about the Mumbai attacks’ Referring to Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s recent visit to US, where he requested ‘unprecedented cooperation’ from Washington on containing terrorism, Roemer said his country was ready to share information on forensic labs, DNA and biometrics. He said apart from India, there were only a few countries with which US had such a strategic relationship on sharing information. ‘There is a shared agreement about the threat of extreme radicalism that comes from places like Pakistan,’ he said.

The interrogation of Headley and Rana by FBI, who nabbed them in Chicago on October 3, 2009, for plotting attacks in India as part  of Lashkar e Toiba (LET), opened a can of worms. The wish list of targets included premier military training institutions like National Defence College, New Delhi, Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, as well as Doon School in Dehra Dun and Woodstock, Landour, near Mussourie – both boarding schools for boys and girls respectively. According to the investigators, Headley was a frequent flyer who made multiple trips to Pakistan and spent “substantial time” undergoing training from the terror group. Central security agencies have located the mobile phone number used by Headley during his stay in Mumbai, where he set up an ‘immigration services office’ as a front and was trying to rent a residential apartment in Bandra. In New Delhi, he stayed in hotels, including one in Pahar Ganj, a favourite location of  Israelis visiting India. Headley, who toured the above as well as Lucknow, Agra and Ahmedabad, between 2006 and 2009, may have reconnoitered and registered many more potential targets.

Here are some interesting entries from the internet. Pakistan's Consul General in Chicago, Aman Rashid, Rana and Headley are reportedly all class fellows who went to the same school. Headley and Rana both lived in Chicago. Various alumni directories named the duo as 1974 batchmates of the Hasan Abdal Cadet College, Pakistan's first military prep school founded by General Ayub Khan. which has an ISI chief, Javed Nasir, and several corps commanders among also its alumni, who refer to themselves as ''abdalians''.

Exercise Yudh Abhyas (YA) 2009, conducted in Babina, Uttar Pradesh, India, from October 12-29, with about 1,000 military personnel from the Indian and U.S. Army, constitutes the largest troop exchange since the YA partnership exercise commenced in 2004. US Army fielded soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, "Strykehorse," with 17 Stryker infantry combat vehicles-their largest deployment outside of Iraq and Afghanistan for the U.S. Pacific Rim forces - along with Javelin anti-tank missile system. Indian Army’s similar component was of the 31st Armored Division. The war game involved locating and neutralizing terrorists of a “neighbouring nation” by various tactical actions and drills, with enough realism  added by live firing and employment of an unmanned aerial vehicle.

While Indian Army has had decades of experience in combating insurgencies and terrorism, it has done so with scant resources and improvisations, a classic example of which is modification of wheeled vehicles to provide some level of protection against hostile small arms fire and IEDs. It is by working with the Americans that the sharper edge that technology and better mobility like that of infantry combat vehicles and their mounted weapons can provide in counter terrorism operations is realized.

Meanwhile, even as Pakistan Army fights its own creations, Taliban etcetera, with doubtful results, the latest attack destroying its ISI HQ at Peshawar-it  continues to build up its anti-India arsenal by amassing conventional and nuclear weapons as well as still nurturing some terrorist groups. It is in the process of acquiring 36 of China’s latest J-10 fighter aircraft, comparable to America’s F-16. An old nuclear transaction has again come into focus by Pakistan’s nuke hatchet-man A. Q. Khan saying “China sent Pakistan 15 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feedstock for Pakistan’s centrifuges, which were difficult to produce on our own. The gas enabled the laboratory to begin producing bomb-grade uranium in 1982. Chinese scientists helped the Pakistanis solve other nuclear weapons challenges, but as their competence rose, so did the fear of top Pakistani officials that Israel or India might pre-emptively strike key nuclear sites,” While Pakistan vehemently denied this claim, its former tinpot president finally lets a cat out of the bag by admitting that ISI has links with all terrorist groups.

A year after 26/11, while consciousness has grown and many procedures and  actions have been initiated, the pace of acquisitions and implementation in many of   the coastal and inland State Governments / ministries / departments and police forces need to be expedited. Union Home and Defence Ministiries must drastically smoothen and speed up their bureaucratic paths and procedures and purchase some percentage of urgent requirements off the shelf, while indigenous production is relentlessly pursued with accountability.

Last but certainly not least, US’ sincerity to assist India against terrorism, which it acknowledges Pakistan is the epicenter of, it must ensure that its aid to Pakistan does not include any fighter aircraft-used or unused and any other heavy weapons.