(1/2)India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens as US President Joe Biden addresses a joint news conference at the White House in Washington, the United States, June 22, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called on Pakistan to act to ensure its territory is not used to launch extremist attacks, the White House said. in a joint statement.
“They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate steps to ensure that no territory under its control is used to launch terrorist attacks,” the White House said.
Relations between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbors, have been tense for years. Since British colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent ended in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but rule in part.
India has for years defendant pakistan of helping Islamist militants who have fought Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it is only providing diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination.
The special status granted to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked in 2019 when New Delhi divided it into two federally controlled territories. Pakistan says the moves are illegal and wants them reversed.
India’s decision led the two countries to downgrade their diplomatic ties.
“President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM) and Hizb-ul.-Mujhahideen,” the joint statement said.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people over three days, beginning on the afternoon of November 26.
“They (Biden and Modi) called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and Pathankot to be brought to justice,” their joint statement said.
In the 2016 attack on the Pathankot airbase in India, seven Indian security personnel were killed.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Edited by Leslie Adler
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