| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Blunt US warnings to Pakistan prompted by terrorism fear |
| 2010-10-11 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Washington's push on Pakistain to get tough on gunnies on its territory is prompted by worries about an attack on US soil, a concern the US will press in talks with Islamabad later this month. A US official last week countered suggestions that the tougher approach is driven by the need to show progress ahead of the October 22 talks by an B.O. regime strategy review of the war in Afghanistan in December. The failed Times Square bombing in May and the recent terrorism alert for Europe fuelled fears of an attack, prompting the stepped up dronezaps in Pakistain's northwest and pointed US comments pressing Islamabad's to pursue gunnies more aggressively. "There is really mounting concern that we are extremely vulnerable to an attack from a group in Pakistain that could occur," the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Such an attack would trigger a critical change in ties with Islamabad, the official warned. "An attack will change the nature of the relationship, not because necessarily it makes sense to, but because the congressional outcry and the public outcry will be such that you will have to dramatically do things quite differently," the official added. Blunt words in Washington about Pakistain's failure to aggressively go after faceless myrmidons coincided with a cross-border incursion by US-led NATO forces that killed two Pak frontier guards and maimed several others. The incident ignited public outrage and prompted officials to close a key border crossing to NATO supply convoys for days. "We have a very difficult and complicated situation in Pakistain. We have worked hard on this relationship. We understand it's important to our security," White House front man Minister of Information Robert Washington BobGibbs said last week. The latest tensions come just ahead of the US-Pakistain Strategic Dialogue later this month, and the Washington talks would go more smoothly if the strains of the last two weeks were patched up by then. "I think it's going to be critical in the next few weeks as they prepare for the strategic dialogue between Pakistain and the US... that they don't have any of these flare-ups, neither do they have any lingering doubts about each others intentions," said Shuja Nawaz, the director of the South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. |
| Posted by:Fred |