New Delhi, December 10
In a significant step, India approached the UN Security Council in connection with the Mumbai terror attack, demanding a global ban on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a frontal organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, even as another senior US official prepared to fly down to New Delhi this weekend.
“We have requested the Council to proscribe Pakistani group Jamaat-ud-Dawa since it is a terrorist outfit. All those who were in any way responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack, wherever they may be, should be brought to justice,” minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed said at a meeting of the Council on ‘global security and international terrorism’ at the United Nations. This was the first meeting of the 15-member UNSC after the Mumbai attack, in which over 180 people were killed.
“India will act to safeguard and protect its people from such heinous attacks; however long and difficult that task may be. We have acted with restraint in the face of terrorist attacks,” further asserted Ahamed.
Foreign secretary Shiv Shanker Menon told reporters in New Delhi that India has approached the UN for banning the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and wanted the international community to act swiftly.
The Bush administration, which has been doing hectic diplomacy trying to play the peacemaker between India and Pakistan, is sending deputy secretary of state John Negroponte to the Indian capital on Friday. He is likely to discuss the situation in the subcontinent after Pakistan launched a crackdown on militant hideouts under pressure from New Delhi and Washington.
Negroponte’s visit is taking place close on the heels of tour of secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to ease the tension between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai incidents, for which New Delhi has blamed elements in Pakistan.
India, meanwhile, is insisting that Pakistan should hand over the terrorists wanted by it in connection with heinous crimes.
