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Updated: Nov 27, 2019 05:57 IST

It is an “affront” that perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack have still not been punished, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the 2008 massacre of 166 people by Pakistan-based terrorists. Six of the victims were Americans.

“It is an affront to the victims and their families that those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted,” Pompeo said to reporters at a briefing..

The secretary of state did not mention but it was clear who that was meant for. The 10 terrorists who carried out the carnage had belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, sailed to Mumbai from Karachi, and their leaders and handlers, who had guided them on phone, were in Pakistan.

Nine of the 10 terrorists were killed during the attack and the 10th, Ajmal Kasab, who was captured, was hanged after a trial.

But their planners and handlers in Pakistan have remained free. Pakistan has been reluctant to punish them, and only acted under international pressure, including from the United States. It put Hafiz Saeed, the LeT founder and alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attack in judicial custody in July, just days before Prime Minister Imran Khan was to travel to the US for his first meeting with President Donald Trump.

Those that were arrested earlier were kept in conditions that could barely be expected in a normal jail. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the lead planner of the attack, and six others, were kept in several rooms next to the jailor’s officer at a jail in Rawalpindi. They had television set and mobile phones and access to internet and they were allowed to receive any number of guests who did not have to identify themselves to the authorities. Lakhvi was subsequently released on bail.