New Delhi, While the US House Foreign Affairs Committee countered President Donald Trump’s tweet on Hafiz Saeed saying that the Mumbai attacks mastermind was roaming around freely in Pakistan, India on Thursday said it viewed his tweet in the context of growing counter-terror cooperation between India and the US.
President Trump tweeted after the arrest of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Saeed on Wednesday: “After a ten-year search, the so-called ‘mastermind’ of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!”
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee asked Trump to hold on to his applause till Saeed is convicted. It said Saeed, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, has been arrested and released eight times since 2001.
“FYI Pakistan wasn’t searching for him for 10 years. He’s been living freely, and was arrested and released in: December 2001, May 2002, October 2002, August 2006 (twice), December 2008, September 2009, January 2017. Let’s hold the (welcome) until he’s convicted,” the US House Foreign Affairs Committee tweeted.
The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the US President’s tweet has to be “seen in context of the cooperation India and the US have enjoyed on counter terrorism”.
“In the last joint statement agreed to between the two sides during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, there are some very strong paragraphs — the leaders called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used to launch terror attacks on another country and they further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks and by other Pakistan-based groups.”
“The tweet has to be seen in the context of the global coming together in the fight against terrorism. Our agencies are working very closely to counter terrorism; we are in regular touch with the US on this,” he said.
