WASHINGTON, Dec 17: The US State Department has said that the United States deals with the civilian government in Pakistan and believes that the Pakistan military submits to the civilian government control.

The department’s deputy spokesman, Robert Wood, who has served as a diplomat in Pakistan, made the observation on Wednesday while responding to a question on whether the Pakistani military was backing Islamabad’s efforts to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attacks to justice.

“I have no reason to doubt that,” said Mr Wood. “I mean … the Pakistani military submits to civilian government control, so we deal with the Pakistani government.”

The United States, he said, believed that the civilian and military establishments in Pakistan were committed to getting to the bottom of this investigation and to making sure these attacks did happen again.

“So I have no reason to think that the Pakistani army feels otherwise,” he added.

The question about differences between the civilian and military establishments in Pakistan over Mumbai attacks are often raised in the US and Indian media, with some reports suggesting that while the Pakistani government may be sincere to ending extremism from the country, the military was not.

The military, according to these reports, saw religious forces as its second line of defence against India and wanted to retain them.

Such suspicions were also raised at the State Department briefing on Wednesday when reporters underlined the supposed or real differences between the civilian and military establishments.

One journalist pointed out that there were concerns in India that Pakistan was not taking ‘enough action’ against Jamaatud Dawa, which he described as the front group to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

“Do you think that they are sincere in their reaction to Jamaatud Dawa?” he asked.

“I think the Pakistani government is being very sincere,” said Mr Wood. “Look, they’re on the front lines of terrorism, as we’ve said many times before.”

The United States, he said, had learned from its own experience about how some of these charitable organisations were tied into terrorist groups.

“This is something that they (Pakistan) are going to have to disentangle,” he added. “But they’ve given us a very solemn commitment.”

The Pakistani government, he said, had also told the Indians that they’re going to do everything they could to help catch the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks and to prevent future attacks from happening.

“So we don’t have any doubt that Pakistan is committed to trying to get to the bottom of this,” said the US official.