US State Department Won’t Comment On Bill Dubbing Pakistan state sponsor of terror

The US is non-committal on a bill introduced in the Congress to seek to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism.

US State Department spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday declined to comment on the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act introduced by Congressman Ted Poe (Republican), who is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Republican) on September 20.

"I have not seen anything specifically about the -- such a bill, and obviously we don't -- I'm not going to comment on whatever pending legislation may be coming in that regard," Kirby said in response to a question at his daily press briefing.

"What we -- what I would say is common threat, common challenge in the region, and we're going to continue to work with Pakistan, with Afghanistan, and the Secretary just came back from Brussels and the Afghanistan Conference in Brussels," he said.

"We're going to continue to work with -- and obviously it's a threat to the Indian people as well."

The bill was introduced two days after the September 18 cross-border terror attack on an Indian army unit at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 19 Indian soldiers lost their lives.

(With inputs from IANS)