Islamabad, Dec. 10 : A Western diplomat has said "Pakistan needs to make a profound change in its attitude to Lashkar-e-Taiba, and that doesn't seem to have happened yet."

An important sign of whether Pakistan is serious about shutting down the Lashkar would be if the group were demobilized by the government, and its fighters given alternative employment, experts on jihadist groups have added.

According to the New York Times, questions have remained about how far Islamabad would go to rein in groups that have functioned as an alternate arm of Pakistan's military and intelligence services for two decades.

United Nations, Dec. 10: The political wing of the banned militant organization Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, could also be banned on the request of the United Nations Security Council, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, has said.

Talking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, Ambassador Haroon confirmed that India has approached to UN Security Council to get Jamaat-ud-Dawa banned.

He said that Pakistan is ready to ban the suspected outfit if the UN requests Islamabad to do so, adding that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s bank accounts could also be freezed.

Washing

Islamabad - Pakistan's defence minister confirmed Tuesday that the alleged planner of the November 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and chief of a militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, have been arrested.

"Lakhvi was picked up yesterday. Azhar has also been picked up," Chaudhry Mukhar Ahmed said told CNN-IBN in a telephone interview. According to Indian officials, Ajmal Amir Kasav, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, told investigators that Lakhwi was the alleged mastermind of the siege.

Islamabad, Dec. 9 : Pakistan will have to measure its capacity to withstand the prospect of a multi-pronged conflict raging both within and without in the wake of last month’s terror attacks in Mumbai.

Lahore, Dec. 9 : The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that it is ready to host its upcoming series with India, or any other country at neutral venues, given the precarious security situation in Pakistan.