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Terror: UK pledges support to India

December 05, 2008 11:09 IST

Pledging UK's support to India in its fight against terrorism in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, a motion moved in the House of Commons said that Britain would ensure its territory is not used as a base for supporting this kind of terrorist attacks.

A condolence meeting, organised by Labour MP Virendra Kumar Sharma, who had moved the Motion along with six others, was also attended by leading NRI industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul, India's High Commissioner to the UK Shiv Shankar Mukherjee and former minister Keith Vaz, among others.

The meeting held in the House of Commons last evening condemned the attack on Mumbai and expressed condolences to members of the bereaved families.

The Early Day Motion, which is generally not to put to vote, said: "This House... believes that these attacks are targeted at the basic fabric of India represented by its secularism, democracy, tolerance, unity and faith and are an attack on democratic values... throughout the whole world".

The UK, it said, will do all it can to assist India in stopping further strikes and bringing to justice perpetrators of these attacks "including ensuring that UK is not used as a base for supporting this kind of terrorist attacks."

"From British parliament to Indian parliament we want to express our strong support. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has written strong letters to Speaker of Indian Parliament and also of Pakistan parliament condemning the terrorists attack," said Lord Paul, British Ambassador for Overseas Business, at the condolence meeting.

Noting British Premier Gordon Brown's support to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the issue, Paul paid tributes to the Indian security forces and expressed his heartfelt condolences to victims' families.

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