News
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Haqqanis may unleash violence inside Pakistan: Clinton
* US secretary of state says Pakistan will suffer ‘dire consequences if fails to contain terrorists
* Says there are ‘different ways of fighting besides overt military action’
* Says she pressed Islamabad to fully share intelligence with US forces in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Haqqani network has launched lethal attacks against US and Afghan targets and it may unleash violence inside Pakistan.
Pakistan will suffer “dire consequences” if it fails to “contain” terrorists operating from its soil, and it needs the US and Afghanistan to help get the job done, Clinton said in an interview with Bloomberg News following two days of meetings in Islamabad.
The Obama administration isn’t asking Pakistan’s military to occupy its rugged border regions, the base for extremist groups that attack US, allied and Afghan forces on the other side, she said, adding that there are “different ways of fighting besides overt military action”.
Clinton said she pressed Pakistan to fully share intelligence with US forces in Afghanistan to prevent attacks and choke off money and supply routes. Better coordination might prevent incidents like the September 20 assault on the American embassy in Kabul, which the US blames on the Haqqani network, she said. “We can go after funding. We can go after couriers,’’ she said she told Pakistani leaders.
Already strained ties with Pakistan were exacerbated by the US commando assault in Abbottabad. Clinton, along with CIA Director David Petraeus and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Ahmad Shuja Pasha.
Clinton praised recent cooperation against al Qaeda as a model for how to crack down on the Haqqanis as well as Taliban, allegedly based in Quetta.
“Because of intelligence sharing and mutual cooperation, we have targeted three of the top al Qaeda operatives since bin Laden’s death. That could not have happened without Pakistani cooperation,” she said.
Pakistan’s political parties came together last month behind a resolution to seek talks and a ceasefire with insurgents rather than an all-out military assault. Gilani urged the Americans “to give peace a chance” before pressing his military for more, he said in a statement.
Clinton said the US message to Pakistan was that the same insurgents who have attacked US and Afghan targets might unleash their violence inside Pakistan.
Clinton said that she urged the Pakistani leaders to take advantage of the roughly 130,000-troop, US-led NATO force next door in Afghanistan while it’s still there. The US and NATO have begun pulling out troops and plan to hand full security control to Afghanistan’s government by the end of 2014.
In the coming months, forces from Pakistan and the coalition in Afghanistan should “squeeze” Taliban and allied extremists, such as the Haqqani network, which operate on both sides of the border.
“There’s no way that any government in Islamabad can control these groups,” Clinton said in the interview, conducted in Tajikistan as she wrapped up a seven-nation trip across the Mideast and south-central Asia.
There is an “opportunity, while we are still with 48 nations across the border in Afghanistan, where we have a lot of assets that we can put at their disposal” to help Pakistan. The Pakistanis said they “have to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t cause chaos” in their country, she recounted. She said the US and Pakistan agreed on “90 to 95 percent of what needs to be done” and the two countries would work on what “next steps we take together.”
US and Afghan troops have recently begun what they call “enhanced operations” against guerrillas in Afghanistan’s Khost province, which abuts the Pakistani region where the Haqqani network is based.
Asked if US troops in Afghanistan will launch cross- border attacks if Pakistan fails to act, Clinton replied, “There’s a lot going on that is aimed at these safe havens, and we will continue to work with them on that.” online
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk