In a bid to convince US lawmakers to put pressure on Pakistan to take action against perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks, a group of Indian Americans have decided to hold 'Washington Lobby Day' on January 27.
The objective is to 'show the US Members of Congress that Indian Americans and all Americans are expressing their strong support for the victims of the Mumbai attacks and for continued US-India efforts on the war against terrorist organisations based in Pakistan,' Chairman of US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), Sanjay Puri said.
USINPAC and several other Indian American organisations including Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) have come together to set up a national task force.
The task force aims at raising awareness among US lawmakers and the incoming Obama Administration and garner support for India on the issue of Mumbai terrorist attacks.
'This coalition of Indian American organisations demonstrates that Indian-Americans are united in the condemnation of the Mumbai attacks and the need for cooperation between the US and India to work together to eliminate terrorism in South Asia,' Puri said in a statement.
Soon after the Mumbai terror strikes, USINPAC had launched a petition campaign demanding that the US Congressional funding should be contingent on Pakistan in extraditing Dawood Ibrahim.
'We believe that in the interests of broader peace, America needs to demand that Pakistan close down all terror camps in its territory or risk losing US funding that has amounted to over $10 billion since 9/11,' says the petition, which has so far been signed by thousands of Indian Americans.
The Task Force, in its first few steps has demanded conditional US economic and military assistance to Pakistan, based on the action taken by Islamabad against those responsible for Mumbai terror attacks.
It has demanded that Pakistan extradite all suspects in the Mumbai attacks for trial in India; dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and finance network between the Pakistani intelligence services and the Pakistani army.
Besides it also asked for dismantling the terror camps run by Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other radical outfits from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir providing training and deploying terrorists worldwide.
