“The state can not escape responsibility (of cross-border terror attacks) by saying it is (the) non-state, (which is responsible)”.
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Speaking at a conference organised by the US-based East-West Center think tank, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar recalled that after the 9/11 attack on the USA, countries were told that they could escape responsibility by citing involvement of non-state actors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made statements on this during his visits to the G20 Summit in China and the ASEAN Summit in Laos.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said that women are the most essential part of our society and their empowerment, protection and emancipation is imperative for the progress and development in the country. According to TOI, this was the third time in a week that India and the U.S. have spoken in one voice on the issue of terrorism. “India continues to maintain that it is incumbent upon Pakistan to extradite this global terrorist to whom they have provided sanctuary for a very long time to face justice for his many crimes”.
In the worst civilian violence in years to hit the Valley, at least 76 civilians have been killed and thousands more injured in clashes with security forces after the killing of a prominent militant commander Burhan Wani, in a military operation on 8 July.
The atmosphere between the two countries is a far cry from the situation in December when they announced a composite bilateral dialogue to discuss their disputes during a visit to Pakistan by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.
“At the start of the (Bill) Clinton administration, in 1993 and 1994, I was a special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, on loan from Central Intelligence Agency, deeply involved in an annual terrorism review which almost resulted in Pakistan’s being placed on the formal list of state sponsors of terrorism”, Robert L Grenier, a former Central Intelligence Agency official, said yesterday.
India continued to keep up the pressure on Pakistan over its support for terrorism on Friday.
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But Pakistan is yet to take any action against groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed-both known to have launched attacks against India. And both groups were accused of plotting and carrying out the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. “Combating terrorism is one such area and sanctioning of well-known terrorist leaders and organisations should not emerge as an issue of difference”, he said, in an oblique reference to Beijing’s relationship with Pakistan.
