Washington (PTI): A senior American lawmaker has told a visiting Pakistani delegation, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, that the country should do "all it can” to eliminate the “vile” terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as ensure protection of religious minorities.
The Pakistani delegation met Congressman Brad Sherman here on Thursday, timing their visit to the US capital around the same time as a multi-party delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is in Washington DC.
The all-party delegation is briefing key interlocutors about Operation Sindoor in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s strong resolve to fight terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
In a post on X, Sherman said that he “emphasised to the Pakistani delegation the importance of combatting terrorism, and in particular, the group Jaish-e-Mohammed, who murdered my constituent Daniel Pearl in 2002”.
Terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh was convicted of orchestrating the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Sherman said Pearl’s family continues to live in his district and “Pakistan should do all it can to eliminate this vile group and combat terrorism in the region”.
Bhutto also landed in the US at the same time as the Tharoor-led delegation.
Bhutto met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with his delegation as well as Security Council Ambassadors in New York and later travelled to Washington in Pakistan’s bid to internationalise the conflict with India as well as the Kashmir issue but instead got instructed to deal with terrorism emanating from its soil.
The US lawmaker also told the Pakistani delegation that the protection of religious minorities in Pakistan remains an important issue.
"Christians, Hindus and Ahmadiyya Muslims living in Pakistan must be allowed to practice their faith and participate in the democratic system without fear of violence, persecution, discrimination, or an unequal justice system.”
Sherman further urged the Pakistani delegation to relay to their government the need to free Dr Shakil Afridi, who continues to languish in prison for helping the United States kill Osama bin Laden.
“Freeing Dr Afridi represents an important step in bringing closure for victims of 9/11,” he said.
Afridi is a Pakistani physician who helped the CIA run a polio vaccination programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to collect DNA samples of bin Laden’s family.
Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities shortly after the American raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in May 2011. In 2012, a Pakistani court sentenced Afridi to 33 years in prison.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).