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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New Delhi (PTI): Several MPs of the INDIA bloc parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, protested in the Parliament House complex on Monday against the Election Commission's voter roll revision in Bihar, and demanded its rollback.

Ahead of the day's proceedings in Parliament, top opposition MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, TMC's Derek O'Brien and Sagarika Ghose, DMK's Kanimozhi and A Raja, besides others, raised slogans and protested against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

There was a huge banner in front of them which read 'SIR- Attack on Democracy' as they lined up on and near the steps of the Makar Dwar of Parliament and staged a protest for the fifth consecutive day.

With 'Stop SIR' placards in hand, several MPs of the opposition, including those of the Congress, DMK, TMC, Samajwadi Party, RJD and Left parties, participated in the protest and raised slogans.

The opposition has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections. They have been demanding a discussion on the issue in both Houses.

On Friday, several MPs of the INDIA bloc parties, including Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, had held an unusual protest in the Parliament House complex against the voter roll revision in Bihar by tearing posters with 'SIR' written on them and putting them in a 'disposal bin'.

They had also staged a protest march in the complex, demanding the rollback as well as a discussion on the issue in both Houses.