President Trump 'walked the talk' in maintaining pressure on Pak, curb terrorism

New York: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed credit for the arrest of Hafiz Saeed by Pakistan government, saying great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him.

Terming Saeed as "so-called mastermind" of the Mumbai terror attacks, Trump said he has been arrested after a ten-year search.

Saeed was arrested Wednesday on terror financing charges by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Province. A UN designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a 10 million dollars bounty was travelling to Gujranwala from Lahore to get pre-arrest bail in terror financing cases registered against him there when he was arrested.

After Saeed's arrest, Trump tweeted, "After a ten year search, the so-called 'mastermind' of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!"

The arrest of Hafiz Saeed came ahead of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict in favour of India on staying the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav.

President Donald Trump has "walked the talk" in maintaining pressure on Pakistan to end terrorism emanating from its soil, India's envoy to the US has said, insisting that Islamabad's actions against terror outfits should be "irreversible" and not a "revolving door" where terror masterminds are arrested from one door and taken out through the other.

India sees Pakistan government's action with suspicion and the so-called crackdown against terrorists is seen as diversionary tactics.

India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla was responding to a question on the strong cooperation between India and the US on security issues as well as in multinational fora such as the UN that saw the designation of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in May this year.

"I have to say that President Trump has done what previous presidents have not done. He has walked the talk, as I have said before. He has ensured that financing for Pakistan has been withdrawn because of its association with terrorism. He has withdrawn all aid and all military assistance to Pakistan," Shringla told PTI in an interview here on Monday.

He expressed hope that the policy is consistently maintained and it does not get eroded in the light of developments as they unfold.

"It is important that pressure on the Pakistani State is maintained so that we don't step back into terrorism emanating out of Pakistan," he said.

Referring to the "excellent cooperation" between India and the US in the security and counter-terrorism fronts, he said, "We are partners in making the world a better and safer place, a world that believes in the values, systems and ideologies that we do - democracy, rule of law, vibrant media, independent judiciary. We have the same values and we need to continue to work together."

India and the US, along with allies France and the UK, worked relentlessly to get Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council, after a decade-long effort during which China repeatedly blocked bids to sanction the JeM chief.

US role is very important in continuing to hold Pakistan accountable on terrorism, ensuring that it does not encourage any support to terrorism from its territories that can affect not just India but the region and the world on the whole, Shringla added.