By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;and&nbsp;Indian Prime Minister Narendra&nbsp;Modi&nbsp;on Thursday called on&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;to&nbsp;act&nbsp;to ensure that its territory is not used to launch&nbsp;extremist&nbsp;attacks, the White House said in a joint statement.
"They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies&nbsp;and&nbsp;called on&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;to take immediate&nbsp;action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist&nbsp;attacks," the White House said.
Relations between nuclear-armed neighbors India&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;have been fraught for years. Since British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent ended in 1947, India&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India has for years accused&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;of helping Islamist militants who have battled Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s.&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;denies the accusation&nbsp;and&nbsp;says it only provides diplomatic&nbsp;and&nbsp;moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination.
The special status given to the Indian state of Jammu&nbsp;and&nbsp;Kashmir was revoked in 2019 when New Delhi split it into two federally controlled territories.&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;calls the moves illegal&nbsp;and&nbsp;wants them rolled back.
India's decision led the two countries to downgrade their diplomatic ties.
"President&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;and&nbsp;Prime Minister&nbsp;Modi&nbsp;reiterated the call for concerted&nbsp;action&nbsp;against&nbsp;all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM),&nbsp;and&nbsp;Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen," the joint statement said.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Islamist militant Lashkar-e-Taiba group, is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai&nbsp;attacks, which killed over 160 people over three days, beginning the evening of Nov. 26.
"They (Biden&nbsp;and&nbsp;Modi) called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pathankot&nbsp;attacks&nbsp;to be brought to justice," their joint statement said.
In the 2016 attack on India's Pathankot air base, seven Indian security personnel were killed.
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(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Biden and Modi urge Pakistan to act against extremist attacks