U.S. wants Pakistan to book 26/11 perpetrators

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration asked Pakistan on Saturday to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

This comes a day after Home Minister P. Chidambaram told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top officials that Pakistan was dithering in prosecuting those responsible for the attacks, including mastermind Hafiz Mohamed Saeed.

“We would hope that the Pakistani authorities will continue their investigation and will bring the perpetrators to justice,” Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley told journalists here.

Mr. Chidambaram also told U.S. officials that security threats from Pakistan did not diminish and there was an increase in infiltration in the past four months.

“Among the topics discussed were the ongoing cooperation on terrorism, following up on the Mumbai attacks and deepening the cooperation between the two countries,” Mr. Crowley said, when asked about the meeting between Ms. Clinton and Mr. Chidambaram.

Mr. Chidambaram also handed over to U.S. officials three lists of terrorists and gangsters, including 60 Pakistanis killed by the Indian security forces in different parts of the country and another 10 arrested in the past year, a top government official said in New Delhi.

Mr. Chidambaram told journalists here that he was going back to India with a “lot of ideas.” One of these was to set up something similar to the National Counter-Terrorism Centre that spearheads American efforts to combat terrorism at home and abroad by analysing threat perceptions and sharing information. — PTI Link...