ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Pakistan on Wednesday rejected US envoy Richard Armitage’s criticism of its military’s cooperation in blocking resurgent Taliban infiltrators into Afghanistan.
The deputy US secretary of state, who will meet President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday in Islamabad, said on Tuesday he believed Gen Musharraf was genuinely trying to curb Taliban and Al Qaeda activities in Pakistan’s western tribal regions, but that he did not have full support.
“But I do not think that affection for working with us extends up and down the rank-and-file of the Pakistani security community,” he told US lawmakers in Washington.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has said Armitage will press Gen Musharraf on military cooperation in blocking the Taliban during their weekend meeting.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry retorted that the military was 100 per cent behind Gen Musharraf, who also heads the country’s powerful army.
“The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. All security agencies are answerable to him and they follow his direction faithfully,” spokesman Masood Khan told AFP.
“Our government is working as one unit.”
Pakistan has admitted that Taliban remnants are on its soil, but Khan denied Afghan charges that Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were regrouping in, and orchestrating attacks from, its semi- autonomous western tribal regions.
The Islamic republic has deployed 60,000 troops to hunt the extremists along its porous 2,450 kilometre border with Afghanistan. Some 25,000 of them are deployed for the first time in history in the seven tribal districts hugging the border, which traditionally operate under their own tribal laws.
“Al Qaeda remnants and the Taliban are not being allowed to regroup on the Pakistani side. They are being fiercely pursued and interdicted,” Khan said.
He took a swipe at Afghanistan for not doing enough to cooperate in trilateral efforts also engaging the 10,000 US troops hunting the fugitive extremists.
“There’s a need to improve coordination between the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan especially in the area of intelligence sharing. A greater effort needs to be mounted on the Afghan side,” Khan said.
Armitage and the top US envoy to South Asia Christina Rocca were to arrive in Islamabad late on Thursday en route to Afghanistan.
They will visit Kabul and Kandahar on Friday, returning to Islamabad for talks with Gen Musharraf on Saturday before travelling on to Uzbekistan.—AFP
