WASHINGTON, June 30: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has been warned that without “swift and decisive action” the Islamic movement launched by the Taliban will soon spread across all of Pakistan, according to The New York Times.
The newspaper said on Saturday that the warning came in an interior ministry document made available to it, which said Pakistani security forces in the North West Frontier Province were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies.
“The ongoing spell of active Taliban resistance has brought about serious repercussions for Pakistan,” The Times quoted the 15-page document as saying. “There is a general policy of appeasement towards the Taliban, which has further emboldened them.”
The document was discussed by the Pakistani National Security Council in the presence of General Musharraf.
A diplomat, who was not authorised to speak for attribution, called the document “an accurate description of the dagger pointed at the country’s heart,” the report said.
The United States has poured about $1 billion dollars a year into Pakistan in the last five years for what are described as reimbursements for Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan.
The prime purpose of that financial support has been to stop the area from becoming a haven for the Taliban and the Al Qaeda as they launch operations in Afghanistan.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the prime-mover behind the document, narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack in April by extremists in his hometown of Charsadda.—AFP
