Mumbai attacks: ‘US committed to bring perpetrators to justice’

US spokesman says Washington sympathises with India.

WASHINGTON:

Ahead of the Chicago trial of the Mumbai attacks on May 16, the US said it is committed to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 terror strikes to justice, according to the Press Trust of India.

“We are committed to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. We call on other countries to do the same,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference.

While the Obama Administration has publicly refrained from making any comments on the alleged role of the ISI in the Mumbai terror attacks, its latest indictment filed in the Chicago court names a suspect “Major Iqbal”, whose affiliation to the spy agency has been detailed in US and Indian case files, reported The Hindu.

“The on-going Chicago trial on 26/11 will throw fresh light on the ISI’s role in the Mumbai terrorist attack,” investigative journalist Sebastian Rotella said in his latest article in The Washington Post.

The paper said the discovery that Bin Laden spent years in Abbottabad has heightened suspicions that the ISI secretly aides terrorist groups while serving as a US ally in the fight against terrorism, and reinforced the accusations that the ISI was involved in the 26/11 attacks, which killed 166 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.