Stating that Pakistan has used terror groups in Kashmir against India, the US has cautioned Islamabad that it is making a serious, grievous and strategic error by supporting these outfits.
Pakistan believed that it could keep a wild animal in the backyard and it would only go after its neighbour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, adding, but there were too many stories where that did not turn out like that.
“We are pressing and pushing on every level that we have in the relationship, and we have to be effective in trying to achieve our strategic goal and try to help stabilise Pakistan against this internal threat,” Hillary said.
Referring to the support US provided to these insurgent groups during the fight against the Russians in Afghanistan, Clinton said when she met Pakistani officials, they rightly say, “You’re the ones who told us to cooperate with these people. You’re the ones who funded them.”
That is how they see it; she said and added, “They also have used groups in the past to support their ongoing conflict with India over Kashmir. And when I became secretary of state, they were trying to basically appease the Pakistani Taliban who were attacking them. So they were trying to draw a distinction between the good terrorists and the bad terrorists, because we had funded the good terrorists together.”
Don’t back anti-India terror groups: US to Pak
