Lahore Shootings Update

Since I reported on the Lahore shootings targeting the Sri Lankan cricket team, there have been some arrests. Pakistani police tracking Muhammad Aqeel have arrested a man called Shafiq from whom he bought a sim card, as well as an alleged accomplice of Aqeel's called Talat whom police arrested after a raid in the Liberty Market area, the scene of the shoot-out.

Unsurprisingly, Aqeel, who purportedly belongs to a militant group, remains at large.

In the US, The Chicago Tribune reports that Juan Zarate, Bush's deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism, has said that banned militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba has replaced Al-Qaeda as the biggest threat to American security.

The US drone attacks on the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, fertile ground for Islamist militant recruitment and training, are, it is claimed, having an impact on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

As I have always said, the titular heads of militant groups are not indispensable. The groups themselves have morphed and transposed over the years as they adapt to changing circumstances and intelligence is shared between those sharing an ideology concerning the perceived oppression of Muslims throughout the world.