Islamabad, Dec 21: In a tough message to Pakistan,
the US has said that it is not satisfied with what Islamabad has
done so far for eradicating terrorism from its soil after the
Mumbai attack, which was not an ordinary event which can be
"swept under the carpet."
The message was conveyed by top American officials to
Pakistani National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani, who
was summoned to Washington as the US government was "getting
increasingly frustrated with what it views as Islamabad's
shifty and shifting position on the Mumbai attacks and their
aftermath", the Daily Times newspaper reported.
Durrani yesterday concluded his unannounced three-day US
visit during which he met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
his American counterpart Stephen Hadley and Pentagon officials.
In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice said
on Wednesday that what Pakistan had done so far to catch those
responsible for the Mumbai attacks was not enough.
She said her message to the Pakistani leadership was
"...you need to deal with the terrorism problem. And it's not
enough to say these are non-state actors. If they're operating
from Pakistani territory, then they have to be dealt with."
A "much stronger message" was conveyed by Rice during a
meeting with Durrani, US and diplomatic sources were quoted as
saying by 'Dawn' newspaper.
The Pakistani team, which included Ambassador Hussain
Haqqani, learnt from Rice and Hadley that the US is not
satisfied with what Pakistan "had done so far for eradicating
terrorism from its soil".
A senior diplomatic source familiar with the talks said,
"The curt message that Mr Durrani and the Pakistani team
received from the Americans was: this is not 2002 and you
cannot do what President (Pervez) Musharraf did after 9/11...In
the past, you swept everything under the carpet while the
problems were allowed to fester. No more."
The Pakistanis were told that the Mumbai attacks were no
ordinary event and the tendency in Pakistan to deal with this
as a minor incident was going to hurt it, the sources said.
The US officials "insisted that they had enough evidence
to prove that Lashker-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah were involved
in the Mumbai attacks and they wanted concrete action against
all such groups", they said.
"They told the Pakistanis to understand the gravity of the
situation and the seriousness of the evidence that exists to
Pakistan's links to this event," said a source.
"The message the Americans gave was: this is the third
time we are saying such a thing. We may not be able to bail you
out the fourth time. Global terrorism is not just an
India-Pakistan dispute. We see LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawah at par
with al Qaeda. Pakistan should stop thinking of this as just
another round of India-Pakistan altercations," the source said.
The Pakistani embassy in Washington kept Durrani's visit
tightly under wraps and did not tell journalists about his
arrival or the reason for his visit.
Contradictory statements on the Mumbai attacks from the
top Pakistani leadership have cast doubts on Islamabad's
"willingness, and even its ability, to take the follow-up
action it has committed itself to," the Daily Times said.
Rice also told Durrani that Pakistan "needs to do better
and while declarations of good intent are to be commended, they
have to be translated through actions", it reported.
US officials were dismayed by such statements as the one
that said Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar had left
the country after it had been officially announced that he was
under house arrest, it added.
Statements by Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that charitable institutions run
by JuD would be allowed to keep functioning have cast further
doubts on Pakistan's sincerity in taking necessary action,
sources said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, December 21, 2008, 00:00