Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
India targets Pakistan on 26/11 terror plotters
Gautam S Mengle and Rezaul H Laskar
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: India on Friday targeted Pakistan for protecting the planners of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and criticised China for blocking the listing of terrorists at the United Nations (UN), with external affairs minister S Jaishankar saying decades of cross-border terrorism could not weaken the country’s commitment to fight back.
India’s stance received strong support from US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who said all countries are responsible for bringing the perpetrators of the carnage in Mumbai to justice. He added no nation should stand in the way of joint India-US proposals to designate terrorists at the UN Security Council.
Addressing an informal session of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, Jaishankar said those behind the Mumbai attacks “remain protected and unpunished”, whereas India captured and convicted one of the 10 attackers.
Blinken, who addressed the gathering via a video message after Jaishankar, said allowing the architects of the Mumbai attacks to go unpunished will send a message to terrorists around the world that their crimes will be tolerated.
Though Jaishankar and Blinken didn’t name any countries in their remarks, there was little doubt they were referring to Pakistan and China. Following the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan arrested seven Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, including the group’s operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, but their trial has made little progress. Since June this year, China has blocked five India-US proposals to sanction Pakistan-based terrorist leaders at the UN Security Council.
“In another month, we will be observing the 14th anniversary of these ghastly attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. While one of the terrorists was captured alive, prosecuted and convicted by the highest court in India, the key conspirators and planners of the 26/11 attacks continue to remain protected and unpunished,” Jaishankar said. “When it comes to proscribing some of these terrorists, the Security Council has regrettably been unable to act in some cases because of political considerations. This undermines our collective credibility and our collective interests,” he said.
“We, in India, understand [terrorism’s] cost more than others. But with that experience comes the steeling of national resolve. Decades of cross-border terror has not and will not weaken our commitment to fight back,” he added.
Jaishankar noted that even as the Mumbai attacks were underway, the UNSC had met on November 28, 2008 and “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and urged all states to cooperate with the Indian authorities”. “We must rise above our political differences to address this scourge.”
Blinken noted that six Americans were among the 166 people killed in the Mumbai attacks and said it is necessary to do more than just mourn the victims. “We have a responsibility to the victims and to people everywhere to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, including their masterminds. That’s what the US has been working to do,” he said.
Jaishankar said cryptocurrency and hawala networks were big challenges when it came to nipping terror funding in the bud.
“Cryptocurrency and hawala... are channels of terror financing, while arms trafficking and state sponsors are the biggest sources in this regard... The reality is that terrorism continues to exist and continues to get the necessary financial resources to thrive,” he said. As countermeasures, Jaishankar suggested coordinated methods with other forums such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Egmont Group, objective and evidence-based proposals for listing of terrorist groups and concerted action against terrorists.