‘Hope food was good': Shashi Tharoor invokes ‘Osama episode' on Donald Trump lunching with Pakistan's Asim Munir

Mint

5 hours ago

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has weighed in on the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir, expressing hope that the discussions included pointed reminders about Pakistan's alleged role in terrorism.
'I hope the food was good and he gets some food for thought in the process', the Congress MP remarked sarcastically adding, 'People in the US could not have forgotten the Osama episode so quickly'.
Harping on India's tough stance against terrorism and its foster home Pakistan, Tharoor said, 'I hope that in these interactions, the Americans reminded Pakistan of not enabling, guiding, training, arming, financing, equipping, and dispatching terrorists to our country from their soil.'
Reminding people of the way Pakistan's Bilawal Bhutto was shut down repeatedly in US, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor said, 'Some American Senators and Congressmen who met the Pakistani delegation did do this.'
US President Donald Trump hosted Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir for a private luncheon at the White House, marking a rare high-level engagement between the two nations' military leadership.
The unprecedented meeting risked worsening a disagreement with India over the president's claim that he stopped last month's conflict between the nuclear-armed South Asian foes.
The meeting, held on June 18, centred on discussions about regional security challenges, counterterrorism efforts, and the evolving geopolitical dynamics in South Asia.
The lunch meeting was the first time a US president had hosted the head of Pakistan's army, widely regarded as the most powerful figure in the country, at the White House unaccompanied by senior Pakistani civilian officials.
While the official agenda of Trump-Munir talks remained confidential, the luncheon was seen as an attempt by Washington to maintain open channels with Pakistan's military establishment, even as concerns about terrorism and cross-border militancy persist.
The meeting lasted over an hour and included senior US defence and diplomatic officials, underscoring the strategic importance Washington places on its relationship with Pakistan's military leadership.
Donald Trump said he was honoured to meet Asim Munir and that they had discussed Iran, which he said Pakistan knew better than most. Trump told reporters he had thanked Munir for ending the war with India, for which he also praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he spoke to on Tuesday night.
"Two very smart people decided not to keep going with that war; that could have been a nuclear war," Trump told reporters.
Shashi Tharoor invoked the 'Osama episode' to underline the gravity of Pakistan's past actions in harbouring terrorists.
Tharoor noted, 'People in the US could not have forgotten the Osama episode so quickly.'
The reference alludes to the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, who was found hiding in a safe house near a Pakistani Army camp in Abbottabad. 'Pakistan's culpability in hiding this man until he was finally found... cannot easily be forgotten and forgiven by the Americans,' Tharoor added.
Osama bin Laden, founder of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, masterminded the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which involved hijacking four commercial airplanes and crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.
These coordinated attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and marked the deadliest terrorist incident on American soil, prompting the US to launch the War on Terror. After nearly a decade in hiding, bin Laden was located and killed by US special forces in a 2011 raid in Pakistan.