Source: BBC World News
Speaking on BBC World Report, Carnegie's Stephen Tankel discussed some of the repercussions behind the recent U.S. decision to place a ten million dollar bounty on the head of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. He argued that the timing of the decision was either intended to \place pressure on the Pakistani government or it was the culmination of a long bureaucratic process. Either way, Tankel said, it does not necessarily bode well for the U.S.-Pakistani relationship. He also explained that Lashkar-e-Taiba might not have high favorability ratings among ordinary Pakistanis, but it has penetrated certain pockets of civil society and is unusally powerful as a result.