The US military’s top officer bluntly accused Pakistan on Thursday of “exporting” violent extremism to Afghanistan through proxies and warned of possible US action to protect American troops, hours after a Senate committee voted to make economic and security aid to Pakistan conditional on its cooperation in fighting militants such as the Haqqani network.
In a scathing and unprecedented public condemnation of Pakistan, Admiral Mike Mullen said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was actively supporting Haqqani network militants blamed for an assault on the US embassy in Kabul last week. Mullen’s that the Haqqani group is a “veritable arm” of ISI is just the latest and most extreme in a series of statements that are being seen in Pakistan as incendiary, and will not only generate concern in government circles, but the wider public will also be very worried about the implications of this war of words.
‘VERITABLE ARM OF ISI’: “The Haqqani Network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of ISI,” Mullen told the US Senate Armed Services Committee. He said the Haqqani militants – with ISI backing – this month carried out a truck bombing on a NATO base in Afghanistan that wounded 77 Americans; assaulted the US embassy and NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital; and in June staged an attack on the InterContinental hotel in Kabul.“If they keep killing our troops that would not be something we would just sit idly by and watch,” Mullen said of the Haqqani insurgents. According to Reuters, some US intelligence reporting alleges that ISI specifically directed, or urged, the Haqqani network to carry out the Sept. 13 attack on the embassy and a NATO headquarters in Kabul, according to two US officials and a source familiar with recent US-Pakistan official contacts.
However, officials cautioned that this information is uncorroborated. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, appearing at the same Senate hearing, expressed frustration over Haqqani sanctuaries in Pakistan and renewed a vow that the United States would safeguard its troops.
When asked by Senator Carl Levin to elaborate, Panetta declined to say what steps the government might take – amid speculation the US might expand drone strikes to a wider area or even stage an operation similar to the Bin Laden raid. But he said the United States had made clear that it would do whatever is necessary to protect its troops. “You know I haven’t spelled that out for them, but I would be very surprised if they were surprised by what we did to fulfill that commitment,” he said. Panetta said Pakistan needed to take action not only on the Haqqani network but also to cooperate on tracking down prominent extremists identified by Washington and to bolster campaign against militants inside its borders. “Pakistan is jeopardizing its partnership with Washington as well as its regional influence by “choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy,” he said.
Mullen added: “By exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic well-being.” In his final appearance before the Senate committee before his term ends this month as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mullen defended his efforts to build a dialogue with Pakistan’s military despite mixed results. More than a dozen meetings with army chief General Ashfaq Kayani have proved crucial, he said.“Some may argue I have wasted my time, that Pakistan is no closer to us than before — and may now have drifted even further away. I disagree,” he said. “Indeed, I think we would be in a far tougher situation today, in the wake of the frostiness which fell over us after the bin Laden raid, were it not for the groundwork General Kayani and I had laid — were it not for the fact that we could at least have a conversation about the way ahead, however difficult that conversation might be.”
AID TO PAKISTAN: Meanwhile, the US Senate Appropriations Committee did not specify any amount for economic aid to Pakistan for fiscal 2012, leaving it up to the Obama administration to set the level and notify Congress – or provide nothing at all. “If the administration wants to provide zero, that’d be OK with us,” said Republican Senator Mark Kirk, one of the more vocal critics of Pakistan on the panel. The committee did approve $1 billion for the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capability Fund, which was created in 2009 to help Pakistan’s military develop counter-insurgency capabilities to fight Islamist militants within its borders.
But the committee voted to make this aid, as well as any economic aid that is provided, conditional on Pakistan’s cooperating with Washington against several militant groups. In addition to the Haqqani network, these groups include al Qaeda and the Quetta Shura. They also include Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Punjab-based group blamed for attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. The restrictions were part of a foreign aid bill that the committee approved and sent to the Senate floor. It will have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives, where lawmakers in one subcommittee have voted similar restrictions.
QUETTA SHURA: In a related development, the Wall Street Journal reported that Afghanistan’s intelligence agency believed that the Taliban’s leadership in Pakistan orchestrated the assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani. “The Quetta Shura is involved in this case,” said Shafiqullah Tahiri, spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security. The Taliban have not taken responsibility for the attack and said that it was looking into who was behind Rabbani’s killing. The Taliban’s primary spokesman for Afghanistan couldn’t be reached for comment on Thursday.
. True reality is that US allegations are against the ground realities in Pakistan. If Pakistan is enjoying good relations with militant groups like Haqqani network why country is facing worst wave of terrorist and suicide attacks. At the same day when US high authorities made their comments fifteen Pakistani security forces personals lost their lives in an attack on check post in North West frontier province border with Afghanistan. Next day militant’s targeted high level security officer in heart of Karachi and killed eight people. More than forty people lost their lives in a mosque when militants targeted pro government tribal elder. Government supported tribes and peace committee members have become main targets of militants groups and even mosque, shops, schools are not save. After participation in US led war on terror more than four thousand Pakistani security personal s have lost their lives more than US and Noto soldieries who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Due to increasing militant’s attacks Pakistani economy suffered badly and total financial lost now have reached to 68 billion dollars.
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