NEW DELHI: Visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned India today that it faced more 26/11 type terror strikes by members of the Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba, aimed at destabilising not only this country but also the neighbourhood. The warnings about what he called a “syndicate of terrorist operators” on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, working to destabilise the entire region, came as the Indian government is mulling a redefined role for its next national security adviser, after Home Minister P Chidambaram proposed a centralised anti-terror command and control structure under his purview. Current NSA MK Narayanan, who has been appointed Governor of West Bengal and is likely to relinquish his job as the Prime Minister’s security chief shortly, presided over the entire internal and external security apparatus of the Indian government. His successor, almost certainly a retired top diplomat, will have a truncated profile, concentrating on strategic and foreign policy issues, while internal security, terror threats and response mechanisms are likely to be centralised in an organisation like a national counter terrorism centre, under the home (interior) ministry’s control. The next NSA (or Diplomatic Adviser, as some sources have suggested) is likely to be announced within a week. As Gates warned India of more terror strikes emerging from Pakistan soil, he cautioned that the LeT was operating in league with al-Qaeda as part of a syndicate of terror groups, which is “dangerous for the whole region of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.” Only close cooperation among all countries, including India and Pakistan and Afghanistan, would be able to reduce the threat. “It is important to recognise that there is a threat in the entire region from the Al-Qaeda and it has been identified that the area of Afghanistan and Pakistan border is a safe haven for these terrorist groups. It is the Qaeda along with the Taliban that is acting in Afghanistan. The Tehreek-e-Taliban is focusing on Pakistan and the Qaeda along with the LeT is focusing on not only Pakistan but also on India,” Gates said at a press conference. “This operation under the umbrella of the Al Qaeda is intended to destabilise not just Pakistan or Afghanistan, but the whole region. They also intend to provoke conflict between India and Pakistan through these terror operations,” said Gates. “What we have observed is that success of any of these groups leads to new capabilities and an all new reputation for all. Victory for one is victory for all,” he emphasised, stressing the need for a concerted effort to eliminate the threat. India is unlikely to accept some of the advice because it does not believe the Pakistani government is serious in its intent to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure within its territory. “The situation on the ground indicates that some parts of the Pakistani establishment still favour the use of some of groups like the LET as a legitimate tool against India,” a senior official said. The lack of trust in relations between India and Pakistan, already tense after the 26/11 attacks of 2008 in Mumbai, extended themselves to the cricket field on Tuesday when eight franchise owners in the Indian Premier League failed to buy any of 11 Pakistani cricket players up for auction. While the Indian franchise owners, including movie stars Shah Rukh Khan (who owns the Kolkata Knight Riders) Preity Zinta (who co-owns the Punjab Kings XI) and Shilpa Shetty (who co-owns the Rajasthan Royals) all denied any bias against the Pakistani players and said they were guided by their requirements and “availability” of the players, the Pakistanis cried foul and said they had been humiliated. The Pakistani players, several of whom have played in the first two seasons of the IPL, claimed the franchise owners did not buy any of them because of “pressure” from the Indian government, a charge the franchisees all denied. The IPL, an entertainment and business venture that seeks to capitalise on the huge popularity that cricket enjoys in India, was meant to field the world’s best cricketers from the ten-odd major cricketing nations, and have them play in the 20-20 or shortest format of the game together in Indian regional (and not country-specific) teams. Both the two seasons of the IPL, the first in India and the second, in May 2009, in South Africa have been hugely successful, earning megabucks not only for the franchise owners but also for the already hugely rich Indian Cricket Board. Earning money from advertising and gate revenues, the franchise owners (including major industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, N Srinivasan and Vijay Mallya, other than the movie stars) can play a maximum of four foreign players at a time. With IPL season 3 due to begin in April, 67 players from Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and India were up for auction among the eight teams. Only 13 players were bought up, some for sums like almost two million dollars, while the rest, including the 11 Pakistanis, remained unsold. Gates also cautioned Pakistan against another major terror attack saying, “It will be unreasonable to assume that India will have unlimited patience in case it faces a 26/11 type terror attack.” He also said singling out only one extremist group for elimination, as Pakistan is doing along its northwest frontier, would not solve the overall problem. Gates, who wound up his two-day visit after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said that the terrorist groups could sow conflict “by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act or terrorist act, or provoking instability in Pakistan itself through terrorist attacks in Pakistan.”