Branding Mumbai terror attacks as a crime against humanity, an influential Republican lawmaker has said the perpetrators of such heinous crime should be tried by an international tribunal.
Sounding the call, Ed Royce from California, who is Ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Nonproliferation, said those involved in planning these attacks should be transferred to face trial before the international community in The Hague.
This is the first time that a call has been made to make terrorist acts' planners and those who carry out the attacks to be brought before such an international tribunal.
"There is no reason for us to be secure in the believe that these planners would face justice (in Pakistan)," Royce said complaining that terrorists who planned earlier attack on Indian Parliament had been let off after initial arrest.
The Congressman told PTI: "These attacks are crimes against humanity. The realisation that a terror training camp was being maintained and churning out terrorists across, has left us all with the realisation that we have to leverage Pakistan to close down those camps."
"Those should be convicted and locked in a cage for rest of their lives," he said.
"So I think, when you have a pattern of behaviour, which Pakistanis exhibited in the past, by initially arresting the perpetrators and those involved in the planning after the attack on the Parliament and then releasing them, there is no reason for us to be secure in the believe that these planners would face justice," Royce said.
{{/usCountry}}"So I think, when you have a pattern of behaviour, which Pakistanis exhibited in the past, by initially arresting the perpetrators and those involved in the planning after the attack on the Parliament and then releasing them, there is no reason for us to be secure in the believe that these planners would face justice," Royce said.
{{/usCountry}}That is why; the Congressman said he is suggesting this approach that these terrorists be tried in the international court of justice.