Amid the ongoing video testimony of key leT operative David Headley, exposing the direct involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the United States has reiterated that it will do all it can to help India in bringing all the perpetrators to justice.
“For our part, the United States has committed to doing all we can to assist the Government of India in pursuing every possible lead to bring to justice those responsible for that attack to the fullest extent permitted by US law,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters here on Monday.
“I think we have a very strong relationship with India on a lot of levels, and law enforcement’s one of those,” Kirby said, adding: “Certainly it’s indicative of our commitment to making sure the perpetrators of that attack are brought to justice.”
The spokesman, however, declined to go into the implications of the testimony, saying: “I don’t want to prejudge or presuppose here based on this testimony, that that it has a strategic value here. That’s not for me to speak to.”
Kirby’s comments came hours after Headley’s testimony before a Mumbai court by video conference from his US prison cell on his role as a lashkar operative in planning the Mumbai attacks which, he said, were carried out after two failed attempts.
The Pakistani-American, who is serving a 35-year sentence following a controversial plea deal with the US authorities, has spoken at length on the role of leT founder Hafiz Saeed and commander Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi, as well as his association with his handler Sajid Mir and how he got to know three officers of the ISI.