ISLAMABAD (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in
Pakistan on Monday to press the country’s leadership to step up the
fight against extremists and eliminate safe havens for terror groups
along the Afghan border.
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| Kerry in Pakistan to shore up counterterror cooperation |
He was welcomed by Pakistan’s foreign
affairs Sartaj Aziz and headed directly into meetings with Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Kerry is making the case for more robust
efforts against all extremist groups in the country, particularly after
last month’s devastating Taliban attack on a Peshawar school that killed
150 people, most of them children.
Pakistan has boosted operations against violent extremists in its
recent months, notably following the Peshawar attack that stunned the
nation. But U.S. officials traveling with Kerry said Washington wants to
ensure that there is a “real and sustained effort” to limit the
abilities of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network and
Laskhar e Tayyiba, which pose direct threats to Afghanistan, Pakistan
and India, as well as to American interests.
Aziz hinted that
Kerry might go to Peshawar on Tuesday to pay his respects to the
victims, saying it would be a nice gesture, but the State Department
declined to comment on Kerry’s plans.
Underscoring the importance
of the security aspect of Kerry’s trip, he was being joined in his
meetings with Gen. Lloyd Austin, the chief of the U.S. Central Command,
which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South
Asia.
Pakistan has been on edge ever since the Dec. 16 attack on
the Peshawar school that was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban as
retaliation for an army operation launched in June in the North
Waziristan tribal area. In response, Pakistan has boosted operations in
the rugged tribal areas, reinstituted the death penalty for terrorists
and moved to try civilian terror suspects in military courts.
The extremists, however, have vowed to keep up attacks and just on
Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in Rawalpindi,
next to Islamabad, killing five people.
Pakistan faces numerous
obstacles in combatting extremism, not least from networks of hardline
Islamist seminaries and religious schools that promote radical ideology,
and a flawed judicial system that has been criticized for an inability
to prosecute and convict terror suspects. India reacted sharply last
month when an anti-terrorism court granted bail to the chief defendant
on trial for the 2008 attack that killed 166 people in the Indian city
of Mumbai due to lack of evidence. The suspect has since been
rearrested.
Still, Pakistan has long been accused of playing a
double game when it comes to dealing with militancy - fostering some
militant groups that operate in Afghanistan and India as a way of
maintaining influence there, while pursuing other militants who target
the Pakistani state.
In June, when the military launched its
operation in North Waziristan, it vowed it would go after all militants.
Doubts remain, though, about how aggressively the army has pursued
groups like the Afghan Taliban or the Haqqani network, which the U.S.
says is responsible for numerous attacks in Afghanistan.
In his
meetings, the officials said Kerry would also be making the case for
improved trade and commercial ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a
cooling of tensions with India that have flared in recent weeks with
firefights along the border with the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan and Afghanistan, wary neighbors, have also seen an improvement
of ties in recent months with the launch of the North Waziristan
operation and the election of Pres. Ashraf Ghani, something Washington
is likely hoping will continue as it reduces its military presence in
Afghanistan.
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