By IANS,
New Delhi: India Friday welcomed the US move to designate the Indian Mujahideen as a foreign terror outfit, saying it underscored the destructive agenda of the organisation with trans-regional links and operations.
Reacting to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Thursday orders in this regard, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said the designation of Indian Mujahideen as a global terrorist reflected the shared commitment of the two nations to combat terrorism.
“India welcomes the designation by the US Secretary of State of Indian Mujahideen (IM) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The US designation reflects our shared commitment to combat terrorism, as well as, the strong and growing bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, which is an important component of the India-US strategic partnership,” Prakash said, responding to reporters’ query.
The designation recognised Indian Mujahideen’s links with Pakistan-based Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Harkat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HUJI), and noted that the outfit was responsible for dozens of bomb attacks throughout India since 2005 including playing a facilitative role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack carried out by LeT.
“This underscores once again the destructive agenda of these organisations with trans-regional links and operations, and the responsibility of all countries in our neighbourhood and beyond, to join hands with the international community to root out the menace of terrorism, once and for all,” he added.