Pakistan needs to do more to bring Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi to justice, US ambassador to India Tim Roemer told journalists after calling on home minister P. Chidambaram.
“They (terrorists) killed scores of Indians (in 26/11 attack), they killed six Americans. It (Pakistan) must do more and make sure that people like (LeT operative Zaki-ur- Rehman) Lakhvi stay in prison. It must do more in terms of its overall approach to (terrorist) groups not only like Al Qaeda, but also LeT as a terrorist group with more regional and international reach,” Mr Roemer said. He also said the US continues to put pressure on Pakistan to do more on the outfit’s founder Hafiz Saeed.
He said Pakistan had “taken more injuries and more dust” to its forces while fighting the terrorists and therefore it deserved some credit for fight in Afghan border against Al Qaeda forces.
The envoy noted that the US Congress was going to engage in two very fundamentally important tasks in the weeks ahead. The US legislators will look into the selling of military equipment to Pakistan and the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
He said the Congress would be taking a “very hard look” at American aid to Pakistan and ask “tough” questions as to how Osama bin Laden was found to be living in Abbottabad, near Islamabad. “We remember Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was discovered inside Rawalpindi back in 2003. This is a concern. Congress will ask tough questions and we want to get to the bottom of it. How do we more effectively use that aid to make sure that Pakistan is helping us not only degrade Al Qaeda but go after groups like LeT,” he said.
The envoy iterated that the US was disappointed that the Boeing and Lockheed-Martin aircraft had been rejected by the Indian air force but he noted that “this relationship between US and India is bigger than any one deal”.
“We believe that cost of F-18 and F-16 is about 70 to 80 million (dollars) a piece and the [Eurofighter] Typhoon and Rafale [of France] is around 130 million (dollars) a piece. We provided great value particularly to the tax payers of India. We provided great technology. We have rather proven, mature and working (technology). I think the competitors have a radar system that they are trying to incorporate,” Mr Roemer said.