US urges Pakistan to take steps towards 'shutting down access to terrorists'

State Department spokesperson says US continues to work with Pakistan in its war against terror

The United States urged on Wednesday Pakistan to take steps to "shut down access to areas inside their borders to terrorists."

The comments were made at a daily press briefing of the US State Department in Washington. Asked a question regarding Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed's recent claims about Pakistan, US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said, "I’m not going to dignify the comments of an avowed terrorist one way or the other."

"We continue to work with Pakistan and continue to urge Pakistan to take steps to shut down access to areas inside their borders to terrorists, to terrorist individuals and to terrorist groups," he added.



Further, when questioned about developments on the Mumbai attack case, the spokesperson said, "I would refer you to the Pakistani authorities on that. Obviously, as I’ve said before, we continue to want to see the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack brought to justice."

In August, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Pakistan to do more to stop extremist groups using its territory, saying on a visit to India, that there could be no distinction between “good and bad terrorists”.



Kerry said it was important that Islamabad moved to “deprive any group of sanctuary”, highlighting the threat posed by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri separatist group which is allegedly behind a string of anti-Indian attacks.

“We will not and we cannot make distinctions between good and bad terrorists… Terrorism is terrorism,” Kerry said at a press conference alongside India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.



Kerry said the US government had “had conversations with all members of the region frankly about efforts they need to take against terrorism which comes out of their country”, adding that he had personally raised the issue with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.