Thousands protest in Nepal against Pakistan's role in 26/11 Mumbai attacks
Nov 26, 2020
Kathmandu [Nepal], November 26 : Thousands of people in Nepal took to the streets to protest against Pakistan's role in perpetrating the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
People staged demonstrations across the country with banners, and roadblocks were also held in several parts of the country.
"I want to pay tribute to those people who lost their lives in the attacks. These kinds of terrorist attacks should not happen anywhere in the world," said one of the protesters.
On November 26, 2008, 10 terrorists trained by the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) carried out a series of coordinated attacks against multiple targets in Mumbai including the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Hotel, the Leopold Cafe, the Nariman (Chabad) House, and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, killing 166 people.
In these gruesome attacks, nine terrorists were killed and the lone survivor, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was caught and was sentenced to death at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2012. On November 11, 2012, Kasab was hanged in Yerawada Jail in Pune.
Pakistani authorities continue to deny culpability and are yet to take action on the multiple dossiers shared by India. A trial underway in a Pakistani anti-terrorism court against seven suspects has made little headway in more than a decade, as Pakistani officials serially question the sufficiency and legitimacy of evidence against them.
A Lahore anti-terrorism court recently sentenced Hafiz Saeed to 10-year imprisonment in two terror-financing cases, yet according to sources, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials are treating Saeed as a VIP.
Pakistan has been placed on the FATF's grey list of the country with inadequate controls over terrorism financing in 2018 saying Pakistan "still needs to demonstrate that law enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of terrorism financing activity."
The country has long been criticised for cultivating terror proxy groups and the country currently faces renewed pressure to act against terrorists.
