India has fired a salvo at Pakistan after US President Barack Obama confirmed that Osama bin Laden has indeed been shot and killed ‘deep inside Pakistan.’
India’s home minister P Chidambaram (in charge of homeland security) said the development “underlined” India’s position that Pakistan “shelters” terrorists.
“We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which President Obama said that the fire fight in which Osama Bin Laden was killed took place in Abbotabad “deep inside Pakistan”. This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan,” he said in a statement reacting to the bin Laden killing.
He also sought to put pressure on Pakistan to hand-over the LeT terrorists that India believes are in Pakistan and carried out the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
“We believe that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan. We once again call upon the Government of Pakistan to arrest the persons whose names have been handed over to the Interior Minister of Pakistan as well as provide voice samples of certain persons who are suspected to be among the controllers and handlers of the terrorists,” he said.
Not to be outdone, the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh too chipped in with an official statement condemning those who “oppose civilized behaviour.”
“I hope that it will deal a decisive blow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The international community and Pakistan in particular must work comprehensively to end the activities of all such groups who threaten civilized behaviour and kill innocent men, women and children,” he said.
In a surprising development, the United States Government informed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by security forces somewhere “deep inside Pakistan.”