Washington: Pakistan is exerting "insufficient"
pressure on the Haqqani network, Afghan Taliban and some other allies of al-Qaeda, CIA Director David Petraeus has said.
"There's been insufficient pressure on the Haqqani
network, on some of the other elements, the allies of al-Qaida
such as the commander Nazir group, the IMU and then some
others," General (rtd) David Petraeus, Director of CIA, told
lawmakers.
"Then needless to say, the Afghan Taliban has not been
pressured sufficiently in the sanctuaries that it enjoys in
Balochistan and in other areas as well," Petraeus said in
response to a question at a Congressional hearing.
Petraeus was responding to questions from lawmakers at a
hearing of Senate Select Intelligence Committee, chaired by
Senator Dianne Feinstein who said that Pakistan remains a huge
problem.
"The Taliban's senior leaders continued to enjoy safe
haven in Pakistan," she said. "To me, Pakistan is a very
puzzling country. We know that thousands of Pakistanis have
been killed by terrorists, and we suspect that what Pakistan
is doing is trying to essentially, to use a vernacular, walk
both sides of the street," she said.
"I think I and most of us believe that having a positive
relationship with Pakistan as a nuclear power, a significant
nuclear power, is very important. The question I have is how
you assess this relationship, which certainly had its low in
December, may or may not be improving," she said.
Senator Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the committee,
agreed with Feinstein.
"Taliban senior leaders continue to enjoy safe havens in
Pakistan, which enables them to provide strategic direction to
the insurgency in Afghanistan without fear for their safety,"
he said.
"Does the community assess that Taliban reconciliation is
likely to have a great deal of success, considering that the
group is resilient, maintains the ability to challenge the
United States, and continues to enjoy sanctuary in Pakistan?
And those are the timelines under which we plan to withdraw US
forces from Afghanistan?" he asked.
"The safe havens that do exist have been pretty obvious
and well-documented publicly. How is our relationship with
Pakistan at this point in time allowing us to address those
safe havens and the cross-border activity that's taking place
there, from a Taliban standpoint," the Senator said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 01, 2012, 12:42