India asks US to tell Pakistan to do more on terrorism

• Asian Age report claims India has asked US to use ‘political and economic clout’ with Pakistan to ensure that its soil is not used by terror organisations which have been targeting India
• Report says US has agreed to help Indian agencies in Dawood Ibrahim’s extradition so that he can face trial in India

India has raised the issue of Pakistan allegedly sponsoring terror outfits operating in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) before the United States, saying that the US must go beyond merely freezing the financial assets of militant groups or declaring their top operatives as designated global terrorists, said a report in the Indian newspaper Asian Age on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, at the delegation-level talks during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, India stressed on America to use its “political and economic clout” with Pakistan to ensure that its soil is not used by terror organisations which have been targeting India since mostly they were “state-sponsored”.

India and the US had detailed discussions regarding the changing terror scenario in the Indian sub-continent, particularly in wake of the US troop pullout from Afghanistan. Sources said that India clearly told the US that it needs to reiterate to Pakistan that outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are not allowed to operate from there as they are directly involved in terror activities in the IKH and are being allegedly backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Significantly, the Indian delegation also informed their counterparts that India had given credible evidence to US intelligence agencies, but the terror outfits were allegedly not only operating with impunity in Pakistan but they are also planning to step up their anti-India campaign.

“What basically we want America to do is to exert more pressure to ensure that Pakistan cuts down its support to Lashkar and Jaish. Though the US has been cooperating with us in the past by banning such outfits and declaring people like Hafiz Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim as designated global terrorists and announcing a bounty on their heads, they now need to raise the bar,” a top security official said.

Sources said that in the run-up to Modi’s visit, Indian agencies had been trying to persuade their US counterparts to launch a joint effort in dealing with Lashkar, Jaish, the Haqqani network and Dawood Ibrahim. Now that the US has agreed to help Indian agencies, they may seek their assistance to extradite Dawood Ibrahim so that he can face trial in India in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts and other cases.

“The talks with the US were extremely positive, to the extent that they seem fully convinced that Pakistan’s ISI has been promoting anti-India terror operations. What needs to be seen in the days ahead is how effectively they take up the issue with Pakistan,” the official alleged.