The United States on Monday asserted its fight against terrorism was global and said it would go after terrorist networks wherever they were after the end of the campaign in Afghanistan. The US efforts against terrorism are global, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters after a two-hour long meeting with Defence Minister George Fernandes in New Delhi.
This fight is much bigger than Afghanistan, he said while replying to a specific question on whether Washington would deal with Pakistan-based terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Rumsfeld, who arrived in Delhi on Sunday night on a 12-hour visit to India, said Afghanistan happens to be the first problem because al Qaeda (of Osama bin Laden) is there.
It has to be stopped before it kills thousands of people, He said adding that US President George Bush and he have been unambiguous that we will be pursuing terrorist networks wherever we find them. Asked if during discussion with Fernandes the presence of terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) came up, the US defence secretary said that we talked of terrorism in a broader sense. We talked of terrorism that affected both our countries and concerns we share and with respect to the importance of dealing with that problem.
Bureau Report