National security: Military leadership rejects US allegations

Military top brass decided that every decision is to be taken in Pakistan's interest: sources.

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s military leadership on Sunday unanimously rejected the allegations leveled against Pakistani security institutions by the United States.

The six hour long emergency Corps Commanders meeting chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani concluded in Rawalpindi on Sunday. Sources said no formal declaration of the meeting will be issued.

Chairman joint chiefs of staff committee (CJCSC) General Khalid Shamim Wynne expressed concern over the recent statements made by the US, and said that Pak-US relations need to be improved.

Sources said the military top brass decided that every decision is to be taken in Pakistan's interest and that attacks from Afghanistan on the Pak-Afghan border will not be tolerated in the future.

An emergency meeting of Corps Commanders was called by General Kayani in the wake of the prevailing security situation and tension in relations with the United States.

An Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said the meeting was being chaired by Kayani. Issues regarding national security are on top of the agenda.

All corps commanders and principle staff officers attended the meeting.

According to sources, recent allegations leveled by US military chief Mike Mullen that Pakistan has links with the Haqqani network will also be discussed.

The Pakistan Army has denied accusations by senior US officials that Pakistan's intelligence service supports the Haqqani network, saying it is based in Afghanistan.

However, spokesman for the ISPR Major General Athar Abbas did acknowledge that the ISI had contacts with the Haqqanis.

He told CNN that any intelligence agency prefers keeping contacts with opposition groups and terrorist organizations for some sort of positive outcome.

He stressed that this does not mean the ISI supports or endorses the organization.

Abbas also added that Pakistan is not the only country which maintains contacts with the Haqqanis.

He also expressed his shock at Mullen's assertion that Pakistan was complicit in recent attacks against the US Embassy in Kabul.

In an earlier statement, Kayani termed the comments by Mullen as ‘unfortunate’, and ‘not based on facts’.

(Read: Volley heats up: ISI targeted in bitter Mullen tirade)

In the first official reaction to the slew of public statements made by various levels of the US administration against the ISI and suspected links between the Haqqani network and the Pakistan establishment, Kayani said that he had held a constructive meeting with Admiral Mullen in Spain last week.

He termed the statements following that meeting as very disturbing.

On the question of contacts with Haqqani network, Kayani said that Admiral Mullen knows well which countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan as the chief protagonist is neither fair nor productive, he said.

'Self-defeating blame game'

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday rejected US allegations linking Islamabad with the Haqqani terror network, saying the "blame game is self-defeating".

Gilani said such accusations would only benefit the militants, and added that they showed US policy in Afghanistan was in "disarray".

"We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war," he said in a policy statement issued by his office amid a growing rift with the United States.

"Blame game is self-defeating... It will only benefit the enemies of peace. Only terrorists and militants will gain from any fissures and divisions."

The White House demanded Friday that Pakistan "break any link they have" with the Haqqanis, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban faction blamed for the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

A day earlier top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen directly accused Pakistan's intelligence service of supporting the network's attack on the embassy and a truck bombing on a NATO outpost.

"The allegations betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan," Gilani said.

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