Kolkata: The United States on Saturday said it wanted global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim to be brought to justice but remained silent on whether it would prevail upon Pakistan to hand over to India the 1993 Mumbai blast prime accused for trial.
"We would like to see Dawood Ibrahim brought to justice," was all US Assistant Secretary for Central and South Asian Affairs Richard A Boucher said at a press conference.
He was asked whether his country would help in Dawood's extradition to India from Pakistan but remained silent on the issue.
The Bush administration has declared Dawood a global terrorist.
Claiming that Pakistan has taken initiatives to eradicate terrorist groups, especially Lashkar-e-Toiba, Boucher said, "President Musharraf does not want them in his country. We are working with Pakistan to help implement that. But a lot of work needs to be done and we think that is important."
Boucher said although Bangladesh's security service was still developing, it had, however, achieved some success in nabbing terrorists operating from its territory.
"We are working with Bangladesh in building up its security capacity and help it achieve a better state of political and economic development," he said.
On the situation in Nepal, Boucher said while Maoists there wanted to join the government, they were yet to give up arms.
"If they continue to kill and intimidate, we will continue to call them terrorists. But if they want to join the political process, it is for the political parties to figure out how they would fit in," Boucher said.
Observing that the US had announced 'significant' packages for Nepal, Boucher said "We will continue to work with the people of Nepal to help them overcome the harm done to democracy by the king".
To a question, Boucher said his government was concerned at the proliferation of small arms from China, but added that it was a global phenomenon. "We are working on a global basis with the UN agencies to stop the proliferation of small arms".
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