India and the United States on Friday reiterated their call for an “urgent need” for Pakistan to take “meaningful, irreversible and verifiable” actions against terrorists and terrorist groups.
India and the United States on Friday reiterated their call for an “urgent need” for Pakistan to take “meaningful, irreversible and verifiable” actions against terrorists and terrorist groups.
Officials of the two countries who held heir annual meeting of their counter-terrorism Joint Working Group here on Friday, in the backdrop of the Pulwama terrorists attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, also shared concerns over “ongoing cross-border terrorism in South Asia”, a reference to Pakistan-based terrorists carrying out attacks in both India and Afghanistan.
India and the United States have been calling upon Pakistan to take urgent steps against terrorists based on its soil, and have renewed those calls with a new urgency in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.
Ambassador Nathan Sales, the US counter-terrorism head at the state department who led the US side, “emphasized” his country’s support for the people and government of India in the fight against terrorism, according to a joint statement. Ministry of external affairs’ Joint secretary for counter-terrorism Mahaveer Singhvi led the Indian side.
The two sides also discussed the need to strengthen cooperation on information sharing and other steps to prevent terrorists from traveling in line with the UN Security Council resolution on terrorists returning to their home countries from conflict zones.
They also highlighted in their discussions, according to the statement, the most urgent and pressing counter-terrorism issues such as funding and operation of terrorist outfits, terrorists’ use of the Internet to recruit and radicalize supporters, and “prosecuting, rehabilitating and reintegrating Foreign Terrorist Fighters”. Returning fighters of the defeated Islamic State caliphate are a global concern.
Officials of two sides also discussed their “priorities” and procedures regarding the designation of terrorist groups and individuals for sanctions.