Pakistan and the United States are at loggerheads over any future action against al Qaeda or Taliban leaders found on Pakistani soil, with the US demanding the participation of its forces in any such operation and Islamabad only willing to accept Washington’s role as a provider of intelligence about the presence of such “high-value targets” in the country. In a joint statement issued here at the end of US Senator John Kerry’s visit to Islamabad after al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2 in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the US announced they would make a joint move in future if any credible information was received about the presence of high-value targets in Pakistan.
“The US and Pakistan will launch a joint action against any high-value targets in future,” the statement said. However, Pakistani authorities at that time interpreted it as not a permission to the US forces to launch a direct offensive inside Pakistani territory. They said the statement meant the US would only provide information and credible intelligence and the Pakistani forces would carry out action on the ground. Some analysts interpreted the statement in a different way and said that Pakistan would provide information and intelligence to the US forces, who would launch drone strikes to kill the militants and also if the US wanted to launch any drone strikes inside Pakistan, it would inform Islamabad in advance.
“The United States, contrary to what Pakistani authorities said about their agreement on joint future actions against the terrorists’ leaders, wants the participation of its forces in any operation against al Qaeda and the Taliban leaders, if found to be present on Pakistani soil,” said a diplomatic source here requesting anonymity. “Pakistan is against this idea and it is asking the US to confine its role only to the provision of intelligence information, after which its own forces will take the necessary action to take out the high-value targets, and hence a serious row between the two states lingers on,” he said.
A security official here, when asked about the Pak-US row over how to carry out future joint actions, expressed ignorance of the matter but said any future action involving US troops on Pakistani soil would have dire ramifications for Pakistan owing to rising anti-Americanism, not only among the people but also within the armed forces.
“The deep anguish that was there among the cadres of the armed forces after the covert US action to kill bin Laden while keeping Pakistan in dark, has perturbed the country’s civilian and military leadership and they were not only angry about the Abbottabad operation but also in no mood to allow any such action in future,” the official said.