The Pakistani government believes that by restricting free movement of ‘Raymond Davis-like dubious diplomats’, particularly Americans, incidents of terrorism in the country have dwindled considerably, suggesting that US intelligence operatives were involved in activities that created unrest across the country. Against the backdrop of the Raymond Davis incident in which two Pakistanis were killed in Lahore in January this year, the government, after tightening the visa policy for US nationals, imposed the condition of No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) on diplomats and other foreigners’ movement in the country, particularly to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
GOVERNMENT’S BAN: FATA Additional Chief Secretary Fazal Karim Khattak told the monitoring and implementation committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that the government’s ban on foreigners’ movement in FATA without NOCs had reduced terrorism in the country. “No major incident of terror has occurred in the country in the last month,” he said. Immediately after the Raymond Davis fiasco, which caused immense tensions between Pakistan and the US, dozens of suspected covert American operatives had suspended their activities in Pakistan and some of them had left the country as the Pakistani intelligence agencies began scrutinizing records of US citizens living in Pakistan. In the same PAC meeting, Pakistan People’s Party’s MNA from Peshawar Noor Alam Khan made another shocking revelation that the political agent of Mohmand Agency was trying to get 375 Afghan nationals registered as a tribe in his agency. Noor Alam said the dubious Afghan nationals were working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) vice chief Liaqat Baloch told Pakistan Today that Khattak’s statement had proven the JI’s claims regarding Americans’ involvement in promoting terrorist outfits in the country. “Raymond Davis-like CIA operatives were and are behind incidents of terror across Pakistan… we have been claiming that the government’s blind cooperation with the US in the war on terror was the main factor behind terrorism in the country,” Baloch added. Brigadier (r) Mehmood Shah told Pakistan Today that the government’s steps for curtailing the movement of foreigners in FATA and KP were admirable but the reduction in terrorism in Pakistan was because of the fact that Taliban had shifted their focus to Afghanistan. “I do not agree with the opinion of the FATA additional chief secretary… Taliban were/are behind terrorist acts in Pakistan… some foreign elements may have their anti-Pakistan agendas but the suicide bombers were not being produced by the US,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, former ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand said the Americans currently collected information through their Pakistani intelligence operatives. “US citizens have their presence in FATA in the form of advisers and consultants… usually the US operates in the region through its agents in various non-government organisations working in these areas,” he said. Meanwhile, Mary Richard from the US Consulate in Peshawar had sped up contacts with the provincial government to end the NOC condition on US diplomats, Online news agency reported.