US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday marked the tenth anniversary of the deadly series of terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai with a pledge to bring its authors to justice.
“The United States is committed to seeing that those responsible for this attack face justice,” Pompeo said in a statement.
During four days of terror in Mumbai in the final week of November 2008, Islamist terrorists belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across four days, murdering 166 people and wounding more than 300. Among their targets was Nariman House — the Jewish community center operated by the Chabad movement in Mumbai. Other targets included a Catholic college as well as hotels, restaurants and a cinema.
The murders at the Chabad center occurred one day after residents were taken hostage inside the building. Six people were killed during the siege at Nariman House, including Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg and his wife Rivka, who was six months pregnant at the time.
Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Mumbai atrocities, Pompeo said it was “an affront to the families of the victims that, after ten years, those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement.”
Continued Pompeo: “We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates.”
The secretary of state pointed out that the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice”(RFJ) program continues to offer $5 million in reward money for information leading to the capture of the Mumbai masterminds. A statement from the program on Monday confirmed that the US was “committed to working with our international partners to identify and bring to justice those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attack.”
Monday’s announcement marked the third RFJ reward offer seeking information on the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, the State Department said. In April 2012, it announced reward offers for information that brings to justice LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, another senior LeT leader.
Algemeiner Staff
{Matzav.com}
