Islamabad to decide pace of inquiry: US

WASHINGTON:

A US State Department spokesman on Thursday said it is for the government of Pakistan to determine how long it will take to investigate the attack on Pathankot air base, following information provided by India.

“It is not for us to ascribe a timeline to somebody else’s investigation. Obviously, in all investigations, you want it to be thorough and you want it to be complete,” spokesman John Kirby told a questioner at a regular briefing. He said the government of Pakistan itself has condemned this attack and made clear that they were committed to investigate it.

“So let’s let them do that and let’s see where the investigation goes. We obviously would like to see it investigated too, as completely and as thoroughly as possible, so that we can better understand what happened.”

Kirby said Pakistan “is a country that knows well the threat of terrorism.”

“We’ve talked about this. Soldiers have been killed. Innocent Pakistani civilians have been killed by terrorists and continue to be,” he said, adding that terrorism is a ‘regional challenge’ that requires real regional solutions. “And we want Pakistan to be a part of those solutions.”

When asked if there were any deadline set for Pakistan to complete the investigation, the spokesman said it was for the government of Pakistan to sort out how long this investigation was going to take. “It is more important to us, as it is in our own investigative issues here in the United States, that it be a good, solid, thoughtful, and comprehensive investigation, not that it be done by a certain timeline,” he said.

“We’re very cognizant of that when we conduct investigations. We’d rather get it right than get it fast, and we’ll certainly defer to Pakistani authorities to determine their own timelines and their own deadlines and the standards to which they want to hold themselves with respect to this investigation.”

When asked if the US was in contact with Pakistani officials after the Pathankot attack, Kirby replied in the affirmative, but added that “we’re in touch with Pakistani authorities every day” at all different levels. To a question, the spokesman said that the US continues to encourage bilateral, multilateral efforts in the region to get at the particular threat of terrorism.

As for the Mumbai attacks, the spokesman said that the US wants to see all the perpetrators brought to justice which, he added, can take a long time. “It took an awful long time to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, but we did. So it can be hard.”

On the attack on the airbase in the Punjab, the spokesman said that the Pakistani officials had said they were going to investigate. “So we look forward to seeing the results of that investigation when it’s complete.”

To a question, the spokesman said he did not have knowledge or information specifically about what India might have provided to Pakistan, but added if there was some information sharing, that would be helpful and productive. “But I can’t speak to the results just two days after,” he added.

To another question, Kirby said that Pakistan has said they were not going to discriminate between terrorist groups when they conduct counter-terrorism operations. “They’ve been very open about that, and we look forward to seeing the results of their investigation.”

He said the US will continue to not only encourage a sense of aggressiveness in counterterrorism operations by Pakistan and by other regional powers, “but we have expressed and will continue to express our willingness to support those operations as required or as deemed fit by those nations.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2016.