Pakistan was asked to cooperate with India to investigate the 26/11 Mumbai attacks by the United States on Friday.
Asked what America is doing about “the actors, the masterminds” of the attacks “freely roaming around in Pakistan,” US State Department Spokesperson Mike Toner said, “Well, we continue to urge the Pakistani Government to cooperate with the Indian authorities to fully investigate these attacks. It was a terrible tragedy; you’re absolutely right. We want to see justice done and we continue to urge Pakistani cooperation.”
The US State Department spokesperson went on to say, “Well, that’s an ongoing conversation that we have with the Pakistani authorities,” when asked why the US didn’t urge Pakistanis to take care of the late Taliban leader.
“They need to address all groups operating on their soil – Taliban groups that are operating on their soil and their territory. We’ve urged them to do so in the past. We continue to urge them to do so and have worked with them on addressing the very real threat on their own soil,” Toner added.
In March, Pakistan asked the Indian government to send all 24 witnesses of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack to Islamabad, to appear before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the federal capital.
“The Foreign Office has written to the Indian government asking it to send all 24 witnesses to Pakistan for recording statements in the trial court in the Mumbai attack case,” a foreign media agency, quoted Chief Prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar as saying on Sunday.
The prosecution chief said the ATC has already completed recording the statements of all Pakistani witnesses in the case.
“Now the ball is in India’s court. The Indian government should send all Indian witnesses of the Mumbai case to Pakistan to record their statements so that the trial could further move ahead,” Azhar, who is also a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), said.
Statement from the US State Department comes a day after Pakistan confirmed Taliban Leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s death in a US drone strike.
Four days after Afghan Taliban Chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in a US drone strike in Balochistan, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif said such attacks not only violated Pakistan’s sovereignty but were also detrimental to bilateral ties between the two countries.
On a day when the Taliban officially confirmed the death of Mansoor and picked his successor, US Ambassador David Hale met the army chief at the GHQ in Rawalpindi in an apparent attempt to pacify Pakistan and ensure his country’s relations were not affected by the episode.
Ambassador Hale’s visit to the GHQ was prompted by the situation arising out of the very rare drone strike in Naushki district of Balochistan on May 22.
Since when has Bharat become a State of US?
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