WASHINGTON, March 6: The United States on Friday welcomed a Bangladeshi proposal to form a South Asian task force to combat terrorism in the region.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed such a force during a visit to New Delhi earlier this week and said that a regional task force could play an effective role in maintaining greater security in South Asia.

“We welcome the Bangladeshi proposal,” US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher told a briefing in Washington. “We believe it is a good proposal. It is a proposal we can support.”

The United States is currently working on a new strategy for combating terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan and both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have indicated that the new policy would promote a regional approach for dealing with this menace.

Secretary Clinton told a Nato meeting in Brussels on Thursday that the United States intended to involve all nations with interests in the Pak-Afghan region in its security plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While backing the need for greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Mr Boucher observed that all South Asian nations faced a common enemy: the terrorist.“Whatever the supposed reason, the Taliban, the Tamil Tigers and the Naxalites, no matter how many they are, they are a threat to us,” he said.

Lahore attack

“They undermine the countries, they undermine the region.”

Mr Boucher, however, said that so far he had no evidence to suggest that Sri Lankan separatists had links to Al Qaeda.

He said he was not in a position to determine who was responsible for an attack this week on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

“We have a lot of concerns about that attack but basically it’s for the Pakistani authorities to investigate and find out who did it.”

Mr Boucher noted that Pakistan had already arrested some suspects and may soon find out who was responsible.

Asked what he thought the terrorists were trying to achieve by attacking a cricket team, Mr Boucher observed that apparently the terrorists did not want the people of Pakistan to live a normal life and that’s why they were targeting everything, from a cricket team to a Sufi shrine.

Mr Boucher said the US offer to help Pakistan investigate the Lahore attack was still there but so far Islamabad had not asked for assistance.

“The offer is always there, in the normal course of business, any kind of help, we are glad to provide, but they have not asked for it so far,” he said.

While he agreed with the suggestion that the terrorists posed a serious threat to South Asia, Mr Boucher said he could not say how much time authorities in that region had to combat terrorism.

“While we see attacks expanding to new places … we also see a lot of people working against them … you see people all over this region who are determined to fight back.”

At an earlier briefing at the State Department, deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said the US was working regularly with Pakistan to fight the threat of terrorism that Pakistanis suffered from as much as anyone else in the region.

Mr Duguid rejected a suggestion by an Indian journalist that Pakistan be declared a rogue state because it was not doing enough to fight terrorism.

“The people who were killed in the most recent attack were all Pakistanis. They were Pakistani policemen who gave their lives to protect their charges, which was the Sri Lankan cricket team. We commend the Pakistani police forces for their sacrifice,” the US spokesman said.
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