Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor Thursday reminded the US of Pakistan’s role in sheltering Osama bin Laden, saying he hoped Washington used the meeting between Donald Trump and Pakistan’s Army General Asim Munir to tell Islamabad not to support terrorism.
The Congress MP made the remark in response to a question from reporters here about Trump’s lunch meeting with General Munir.
Tharoor said he hoped that during the interaction, the United States had reminded Pakistan of the importance of not supporting terrorism or providing safe havens to terrorists, and of not enabling, guiding, training, arming, financing, equipping or sending terrorists into India.
He said this message was conveyed to the Pakistani delegation by some of the American Senators and Congressmen and hoped that everyone in the US government would do the same.
Tharoor, who recently led a delegation of Indian parliamentarians to the US and a few other countries to talk about India’s response to terrorism in the wake of the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, said the US could not have forgotten the episode of Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden so quickly.
“Osama Bin Laden killed over 2,000 people in the 9/11 attacks. He destroyed two iconic American buildings. So, in these circumstances, Pakistan’s culpability in hiding this man, until he was finally found in a safe house near an army camp in a cantonment city, is something that cannot be easily forgotten by the Americans,” the Congress leader said.
On being asked by reporters as to why the US President did not meet the Indian delegation, but met the Pakistani General, Tharoor said that the Indian delegates were received by Vice President J D Vance which was a “significant honour”.
Usually, Parliamentary delegates are met by senior officials, like Deputy Secretaries of State, he said.
He also pointed out that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met with Trump much earlier.
“We gave exactly the same message that the PM gave to the US President and our message was received without any demur, disagreement or argument by the Vice President and the Deputy Secretary of State,” he said.
On the alleged mediation by the US to end the India-Pakistan conflict, Tharoor said that India never needed any persuading to stop as it had made it clear that if Pakistan stopped, so would it.
“If there was any pressure from President Trump, it would only have been on Pakistan. When Pakistan offered to stop, we stopped. So, there was no requirement for any mediation or any pressure on us,” he said.
Tharoor also termed as “grave” the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict, saying both nations were longtime friends of India, which would ideally prefer there be peace between the two countries.
Tharoor said that presently the matter was “not in our hands” and all that India can do is observe with “attention and concern” what is going on there.
“Our concerns remain, of course, for the well-being of the people there as well as the safety and security of our own citizens,” he said.
The Congress MP also said a number of Indian students have been evacuated from Iran to neighbouring countries and that he was sure the Indian government was closely following what was happening in West Asia.
PTI
