Trump with India in its ‘quest for justice’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump added his voice to the outpouring of support for India and the condemnation of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 10 years ago saying the US “stands with the people of India in their quest for justice”, which has meant prosecuting and punishing those who planned and executed it from Pakistan.
The president did not name Pakistan in the tweet he posted late Monday afternoon, but the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has in his statement earlier and Nathan Sales, the counterterrorism czar at the state department had, stressing the need for Pakistan to punish the guilty.
President Trump, who has been tough on Pakistan, pointed in that direction. “On the ten-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack, the US stands with the people of India in their quest for justice,” he wrote on Twitter. “We will never let terrorists win, or even come close to winning!”
The president has suspended $1.66 billion in security aid to Pakistan in 2018 after accusing the one-time close ally of giving only “lies and deceit” in return for American assistance and steered it on watch-list of a world watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, that combats money laundering and terrorist financing.
Just the previous week Trump fulminated in an interview to the news TV channel that Pakistan has “not done a damn thing” for the United State despite all the aid it has received.
On Monday, two Trump White House officials and Ambassador Sales attended an event hosted by Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna at the Indian Embassy to observe the 10th anniversary of the attack. Sarna said, “bilateral cooperation between India and the US in the field of counter-terrorism has perhaps never been more intense and at a higher level that it is.”
ENSURE JUSTICE , ISRAEL TELLS PAKISTAN
Israel has asked Pakistan to “ensure full justice” to the 26/11 terror attack victims.
Michael Ronen, director, South & South East Asia Division at the ministry of foreign affairs of Israel said it was important for the international community, especially Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators of the attacks do not go scott free. “It is important to provide justice...,” he said, urging “all governments, including the Pakistan, to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”