Pakistan-based LeT in same rank as Al-Qaeda: US

Napolitano termed the group, also involved in the Mumbai attacks, as an equally dangerous threat as Al-Qaeda.

NEW DEHLI: The US Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano said on Friday she viewed the banned Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as an equal in danger to the Al-Qaeda network.

Janet Napolitano, speaking to the media on a trip to New Delhi where she met top Indian security officials, was asked about the threat posed by the group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.

India believes the LeT and the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) staged the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, which severely strained ties between the countries and led to a breakdown in their peace talks.

David Coleman Headley, an American-Pakistani giving evidence in a Chicago court in connection with the attacks in India's financial capital, has admitted to his links with the LeT and Pakistani intelligence.

The group, founded to fight India's presence in the disputed territory of Pakistan (Kashmir), denied any involvement in the Mumbai carnage.

Napolitano said the US had worked with India on investigations into the Mumbai attacks and would grant Indian investigators further access to Headley, the key government witness in the trial of an alleged accomplice.

A twice convicted drug dealer, Headley admitted to taking part in the Mumbai plot after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow him to be extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark on related charges.