Author:
Publications: Herald, Panaji, Goa
Dated: October 5, 2001
Intro: UK lends full support to
fight terrorism in J&K
LONDON, OCT 4 (PTI): Declaring that
the war against terrorism will be fought on all fronts and all territories,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this commitment is reinforced by
the car bomb attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly which left at least
38 people dead and scores injured.
Addressing a special session of
Parliament, Blair said an unprecedented level of solidarity and commitment
to work together against terrorism is being undertaken by the international
community.
"This is a commitment that spans
all continents, cultures and religions, reinforced by attacks like the
one on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in Srinagar which killed over 30
innocent people."
Blair, who had a ten-minute telephonic
conversation with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday, said over
the past three weeks Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and he had been in intensive
contact with foreign leaders from every part of the world.
Blair had a 30-minute meeting with
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh yesterday. After the talks, Singh
said that Britain had pledged full cooperation in fighting terrorism in
Kashmir and would not allow its soil to be used as a base for raising funds
to fuel terrorism in the valley.
Vowing to eliminate the threat Osama
bin Laden and his terrorist network represented, Blair told the House that
there was no doubt that he and his international network were behind the
attacks in the US.
"It was Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda,
the terrorist network which he heads, that planned and carried out the
atrocities on September 11".
Blair's statement in Parliament
came a day ahead of his planned visit to Islamabad for talks with President
General Pervez Musharraf on the global fight against terrorism.
The House was told intensive efforts
made here and elsewhere to investigate and find those responsible for the
attacks clearly points to bin Laden's involvement.
