Pompeo said that the “brutality of the attack shocked the entire world.”
By United with Israel Staff
On the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai, India, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged justice for the victims while addressing reporters on Tuesday at Foggy Bottom, the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“It is an affront to the victims and their families that those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted,” Pompeo said to reporters.
Pompeo was referring to the deadliest attack in India’s history, which took place November 26, 2008. The terrorists killed 166 people, six of whom were US citizens. Three-hundred people were injured.
Ten heavily-armed terrorists from one of the largest and most dangerous Islamic terror groups in South Asia, the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), attacked critical sites in Mumbai, including the Taj Hotel, the Jewish center and the Mumbai Chabad House.
Among the murdered were two young Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg. Four other Jewish visitors were also killed there.
Nine of the 10 terrorists were killed during the attack. The 10th, Ajmal Kasab was captured and hung after a trial.
However, the groups planners and handlers, who guided the terrorists by phone, have not been punished and remain free. Pakistan has been reluctant to act except under international pressure, including from the US.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of LeT and its “political wing” Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the United Nations has designated a terrorist organization, was instrumental in the Mumbai attack. He is the alleged mastermind behind the heinous crime. Saeed was put into judicial custody in July, days before Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was to travel to the US for his first meeting with President Donald Trump, according to Hindustan Times.
He is a designated as a terrorist by the US Justice Department. Following his release by a Pakistani court in 2017, the US put a $10 million bounty on Saeed’s head. He has been detained and released by Pakistan on and off since the attack, according to Times of Israel.
“Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the lead planner of the attack, and six others, were kept in several rooms next to the jailor’s officer at a jail in Rawalpindi,” according to the Times. “They had a television set and mobile phones and access to internet and they were allowed to receive any number of guests who did not have to identify themselves to the authorities. Lakhvi was subsequently released on bail.”
This is not the first time that Pompeo urged Pakistan to bring justice to the victims. Last November, the Secretary of State also asked for action to be taken against those responsible for the attacks.