As Americans gather for Thanksgiving this Thursday, November 26th, the Hindu American Foundation joins human rights activists across the world in marking the twelfth anniversary of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
The Hindu American Foundation stands with the families of those who lost their lives in the third-worst terrorist attack on Indian soil.
“We stand with the victims of terrorism and commemorate the senseless taking of innocent lives in the Mumbai attacks twelve years ago,” stated HAF Executive Director Suhag Shukla, Esq. “We call on world governments to press harder and root out terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which continue to operate freely in Pakistan and carry out attacks in India, Afghanistan, and throughout the region,” Shukla said.
From November 26-29, 2008, a group of ten Pakistani nationals carried out a series of attacks across Mumbai, India’s second largest city, killing 166 people, including six Americans. Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.
In 2001, the US government officially designated LeT as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). As recently as 2018, the US State Department noted that “LeT continues to operate freely within Pakistan, holding public rallies, raising funds, and plotting and training for terrorist attacks.”
For years, HAF has called for ending US military assistance to Pakistan as long as it continues to support, finance, and harbor global terrorist organizations. HAF welcomes the fact that the US government, under the Trump administration, has canceled over $800 million in aid intended for Pakistan since 2016.
“When it comes to pursuing justice for the victims of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, stopping the flow of US taxpayer dollars to a terror-state like Pakistan seems like a good start and we look forward to the incoming Biden-Harris administration continuing this policy,” Shukla said.
