US assures India of access to Rana
Bracketing the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba alongside top terrorist outfit Al Qaeda and its affiliates, the United States on Friday assured India of access to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative Tahawwur Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 terror attack case facing trial in a Chicago court.
The assurance of access and sharing evidence related to the Mumbai attack was made during the India-US homeland security dialogue between Union home minister P. Chidambaram and his US counterpart, Ms Janet Napolitano, here on Friday.
Ms Napolitano pointed out that the US had given India “full access” to US-based LeT operative David Coleman Headley who played a key role in the Mumbai attacks.
“The US has given India full access to the witness and once the case is over more access will be given. It is an example of how our two countries cooperate,” she said.
India has sought 33 documents, including photographs, emails, reconnaissance videos of 26/11 sites and other evidence placed in the US court during the trial of Headley and his accomplice Rana. It has also sought access to Rana and a few witnesses in the case in that country.
However, while Mr Chidambaram, in his opening remarks, termed Pakistan a “global epicentre of terrorism” where the “infrastructure of terrorism” is flourishing as an “instrument of state policy”, Ms Napolitano skirted questions from journalists on whether the US would lean on Islamabad to end terror directed against India.
“The secretary of state (Hillary Clinton) is today in Pakistan and has already commented on it,” she said.
When asked about Headley’s revelations in a US court that Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, had master-minded the 26/11 attack, Ms Napolitano said her dialogue was limited to “strategic partnership between India and the US” and that she could not comment on matters that are sub-judice.
“I think, in my judgment, the LeT ranks right up there with Al Qaeda and related groups as terrorist organisations, one that seeks to harm people and takes innocent lives,” she said when asked to comment on the outfit responsible for 26/11.
However, she evaded questions on LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, believed to be roaming free in Pakistan.
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