Pakistan must bring perpetrators to justice: US

The US said that Pakistan must bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice.

WASHINGTON: The United States said that one of the things that Pakistan must do, in the fight against terror, is to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice.

State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley, as reported by The Hindustan times, on Thursday said, “There are things, clearly, that Pakistan must do. It should continue to investigate, and bring to justice those, who are responsible for the Mumbai attacks. This is important for both countries”.

He claimed that another Mumbai attack, and statements that equate the threats from Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed for the 26/11 attacks, with al Qaeda, could provoke a war in the region; he however denied any changes in their policy on Pakistan due to this by saying,

“The US policy is to fully cooperate with Pakistan on terrorism and to continue to work closely to help Pakistan battle the insurgency that threatens and surrounds it”. He also said that the US has seen Pakistan progress significantly, and talks with Pakistan on what it needs, will be continued.

In response to another question, he replied that the sanctions imposed on Friday, by the Treasury Department against three key leaders and financiers of the Haqqani network, were not in lieu of the State Department’s action against the Pakistan-based group. He said that the possible designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organisation is still under consideration, as mentioned by the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on her trip to Pakistan this week.

It should be noted that the new top US commanders in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, and the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, have both urged putting the Haqqani network on the US State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2010.