India, US condemn cross-border terrorism
Call for 26/11 perpetrators to be brought to justice, ask Taliban to adhere to commitments, say Afghan soil must not be used for terror
Stepping up their joint fight againt terrorism, India and the US have said they will take concerted action against all terror groups, including those proscribed by the United Nations, condemned cross-border terrorism and called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to be brought to justice.
A Joint Statement issued after the first bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday said the United States and India stand together in a shared fight against global terrorism.
The two leaders reaffirmed that the United States and India “will take concerted action against all terrorist groups, including groups proscribed by the UNSCR 1267 Sanctions Committee.”
They “condemned crossborder terrorism, and called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to be brought to justice. They denounced any use of terrorist proxies and emphasised the importance of denying any logistical, financial or military support to terrorist groups which could be used to launch or plan terror attacks,” the joint statement said.
Pakistan-based radical cleric Hafiz Saeed’s Jamat-udDawa (JuD) is the front organisation for the Lashkar-eTayyeba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans. Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty on, is currently lodged at Lahore’s high-security Kot Lakhpat jail.
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as Afghanistan-based Haqqani Network are proscribed terror entities under UNSC resolution 1267 concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al Qaeda, and associated individuals, groups,
undertakings and entities. Saeed and JeM founder Masood Azhar are also listed as global terrorists under the 1267 Sanctions regime.
Meanwhile, India and the US called on the Taliban to adhere to its commitments
and respect the human rights of all Afghans, including women, children and minority groups, and asked the new rulers in Kabul to ensure the war-torn country’s territory is never again used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists.
The US-India Joint Leaders’ Statement said the two leaders underscored the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan.
They resolved the Taliban must abide by UNSC Resolution 2593 (2021) which demands that Afghan territory must never again be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or finance terrorist attacks, and underscored the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan, according to the joint statement.
The UNSC resolution 2593 on Afghanistan, adopted under India’s Presidency of the 15-nation Council in August, had demanded Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts. fight the Covid-19 pandemic over the past year, as governments, civil society, businesses, and diaspora communities mobilised in unprecedented ways to share emergency relief supplies during each country’s times of need,” said a joint statement issued after the bilateral meeting between the two leaders on Friday.
Having administered hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine to protect their own citizens at home and abroad, Biden and Modi reiterated their commitment to lead the global effort to end the coronavirus pandemic, it said.
President Biden welcomed India’s announcement that it will resume exports of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines including to COVAX.
“Both the leaders also hailed the finalisation of the overarching Memorandum of Understanding on Health and Biomedical Sciences to