In an act of solidarity with India in the wake of the Pathankot terror attack, the US has literally served a notice to Pakistan saying that it expects Islamabad to act on its promise of eliminating all terrorists and stressed that in doing so it will not discriminate among terror groups.
“The government of Pakistan has spoken very powerfully to this and it’s certainly our expectation that they’ll treat this exactly the way they’ve said they would,” State Department Spokesman John Kirby said on January 4 while reacting to the attack by Pakistani terrorists on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. Mr Kirby’s remarks came hours after Pakistan said it was working on the leads provided by India on this attack.
Eliminate safe havens
“The US has for a long time talked about the continued safe haven issues there between Afghanistan and Pakistan and certainly between India and Pakistan,” Mr Kirby said. “We’re mindful that there remain some safe havens that we obviously want to see cleared out. And we continue to engage with the government of Pakistan to that end. And again, I would point you back to what the government of Pakistan itself has said and acknowledged that it’s not going to discriminate among terrorist groups and it will continue to take the fight (to them),” the spokesperson added.
Washington pressed Islamabad for increased cooperation and regional coordination in combating terrorism. “What we want and what we continue to say we want and will continue to work for is increased cooperation, communication, coordination, increased information-sharing and increased efforts against what we all believe is a shared challenge in the region,” Mr Kirby said.
“We want to see the government of Pakistan continue to press the fight against terrorists, all terrorists, and to meet their own expectations that they’re not going to discriminate among groups. They’ve said that themselves, and our expectation is that they’ll live up to that pledge,” Mr Kibry added.
The reminder to Pakistan on not discriminating against groups reinforces India’s contention that while Islamabad has been acting against terrorists threatening their country, it has not shown enthusiasm for tackling terrorist groups targeting India, as the latest terror attack in Pathankot shows. The Pathankot terror attack is suspected to be masterminded by Jaish e-Mohamed, a militant group which has been used as a proxy by Pakistan’s military-ISI establishment.
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