No one questioned strikes on Pak: PM
US names Hizbul chief ‘global terrorist’
PM Modi will be welcomed by the First Lady and US President at the While House. The two leaders will spend 4 hours together.
They will address reporters after a joint statement on their meet and take one question each
Washington, June 26: In a major vindication for India and embarrassment for Pakistan, hours before PM Narendra Modi was scheduled to meet President Donald Trump, the US state department named Syed Salahuddin, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief, a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.
Salahuddin had, last year, threatened to turn the Kashmir valley “into a graveyard for Indian forces”.
Being designated a “global terrorist” imposes sanctions on foreigners “who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism” that threaten the US or its nationals.
Mr Modi, scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House (early Tuesday morning, India time) for their first meeting to discuss trade and counterterrorism, among other issues, had earlier in the day told a gathering of Indian-Americans that India has succeeded in convincing the world about the “face of terrorism” and that’s why not a single nation had questioned India’s decision to conduct surgical strikes against terrorist launchpads on Pakistani soil.
Ahead of the meeting with Mr Trump, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson called on PM Modi at the Hotel Willard Intercontinental, where he is staying, and discussed ways to boost
India-US strategic ties. Earlier, US defence secretary James Mattis had also called on Mr Modi.
“When we talked of terrorism 20 years back, many in the world said it was a law and order problem and didn’t understand it. Now terrorists have explained terrorism to them so we don’t have to,” Mr Modi said on Monday, referring to the increasing number of deadly terrorist attacks around the globe.
Addressing nearly 600 Indian-Americans at a reception organised for him in Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC, he said the Indian Army’s surgical strikes against terror training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on September 29 demonstrated that India can defend its sovereignty and ensure its security whenever required.
The surgical strikes were launched as a response to an attack by Pakistanbased terrorists on an Indian Army base in Kashmir’s Uri in which 19 Indian soldiers lost their lives.
“When India carried out the surgical strikes, the world realised our strength and saw that while we exercise restraint, when the need arises, India can also show its strength and might in dealing with terror and protecting itself,” he said to thunderous applause from the audience.
The Prime Minister said the world could have put India in the dock for launching the strikes. “But for the first time, not one nation in the world raised a single question, about India’s major step to conduct the surgical strikes against terror camps on Pakistani soil.”
“It is a different matter for those who had to suffer due to the surgical strikes,” he said, taking a jibe at Pakistan.
Mr Modi also had some choice barbs for China.
The Prime Minister said India does not believe in disturbing the global order to achieve its goals. “This is India’s tradition and culture,” he underlined, apparently referring to China’s growing assertiveness in the resource- rich South China Sea, where Beijing has territorial disputes with its neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
“We are bound by international law because that is our character and nature,” he said, but added that India is also capable of taking the “toughest of steps for our sovereignty, security, peace, our people and progress”.
Mr Modi’s addresses to the Indian community during his visits overseas are seen as an effort to court diaspora Indians by eulogising their links to their roots and their contributions to the country they have made their home.
As part of that outreach, Mr Modi praised external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, saying she and her ministry have effectively used social media to deliver good governance and help Indians in distress in every corner of the world.
“If any Indian in distress tweets from anywhere in the world to the external affairs ministry, even at two in the night, within 15 minutes Sushma Swaraj replies to it...” he said.