03 December 2008
Rice Urges India-Pakistan Cooperation in Mumbai Attack Probe
U.S. offers support for investigation, efforts to prevent future attacks
Washington — The terrorist strike on India’s financial capital, Mumbai, underscores the importance of building strong international counterterrorism partnerships to bring perpetrators to justice and prevent future attacks, says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“Americans, perhaps as well as any, understand the feelings that run so deep at a time like this, having experienced the attacks of September 11th,” Rice told reporters in New Delhi on December 3 in a joint press conference with Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee. ”I came to pledge the cooperation of the United States in both those tasks.”
Dozens of Indian citizens were killed by a team of gunmen that launched coordinated attacks November 26 that claimed more than 170 lives and have been likened by many in India to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The terrorists targeted several of Mumbai’s popular tourist sites, as well as a cinema and a hospital, police headquarters, a train station and a community center. Six Americans were among the victims, along with others from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
Rice’s visit follows the deployment of a team of top U.S. security experts, including FBI forensics investigators, to assist in the investigation. “What is important now is, of course, to go to the source and to know what happened, to follow every lead, wherever it may lead, and to bring those to justice who did this,” Rice said.
Rice declined to comment on Indian charges that the gunmen were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba — designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization for more than a decade of attacks launched from the Pakistani-controlled side of the disputed Kashmir region. The attacks have led to rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors and threaten to unravel progress toward India-Pakistan peace under the U.S.-supported “composite dialogue” process.
“We are not going to jump to any conclusions about who is responsible for this, although the United States is prepared and is already actively engaged in information sharing, in forensic help, to try and make those links,” Rice said. She cited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s pledge to take action should investigations yield evidence that the gunmen received support from groups within Pakistan.
“The fact is that nonstate actors sometimes operate within the confines of a state, on the territory of a state, and when that is the case, then there has to be very direct and tough action against them,” Rice said. “That is really the issue here. I think we need to let the facts lead where they may.”
As Rice met with Mukherjee, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top officials, America’s top military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, arrived in Pakistan for talks with President Zardari and his top security advisers in a bid to defuse tensions in the region and confront extremist groups that pose a threat to India, Pakistan and the wider global community.
“We expect all responsible nations to participate and cooperate in bringing these perpetrators to justice,” Rice said. “Pakistan has a special responsibility to do so, and to do so transparently, fully, urgently.”
Both India and Pakistan have been targeted extensively by terrorists in recent years, including a 2001 attack on India’s parliament, the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, blasts in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan, as well as a recent string of bombings in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Jaipur.
More than 3,100 people in Pakistan and 1,460 in India have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks during 2008, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center.
As investigations continue, Rice also stressed the importance of expanding existing intelligence exchanges and security cooperation between Washington and New Delhi to prevent future attacks — a key lesson learned by U.S. policymakers since 2001. “The United States also has a good deal of experience in the counterterrorism fight and how one has to organize differently for that counterterrorism fight,” she said.
“I know that this is a very difficult time for the people of India, for the people of Mumbai, but I hope that it is a time also when you can feel the sense of solidarity and support that is there in the international community from your friends,” Rice said. “And I hope that you know, more than anything, that you are not alone in this fight. There are many of us who have experienced this terror, and we stand united in our determination to defeat them.”
A transcript of Rice’s remarks is available on the State Department Web site.
