Seething rejoinder to US State Dept

FO says terrorism is more of a concern for Pakistan than its neighbours

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday took serious exception to a US State Department spokesman’s remarks urging Islamabad and New Delhi to cooperate against terrorism, saying the menace is “more of a concern to Pakistan than its neighbour”.

“We have taken a serious note of the remarks made by the US deputy spokesperson, which are self-contradictory and oblivious to the fact that Pakistan has taken concrete measures to counter terrorism in a phase-wise manner keeping in view Pakistan’s national security concerns,” Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in an official statement.



“Let me refresh his memory with some of the ground realities and my observations. Recently, Senator John McCain visited Pakistan along with some other senators and congressmen. They were unanimous in acknowledging the remarkable achievements made by Pakistan in its counterterrorism drive. They visited Miramshah [the main town in North Waziristan] and observed the situation on ground for themselves.  Senator McCain, upon his return, also wrote an article on his experience in Pakistan,” he said.

State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner called upon Pakistan and India on Friday to cooperate against terrorism. “We advocate for closer cooperation, certainly, between India and Pakistan to deal with terrorist threats in both their countries. Terrorism is obviously a reality in both countries, and they need to – in order to effectively confront it, they need to work together,” he told a news briefing.

Zakaria pointed out that “terrorism is more of a concern to Pakistan than its neighbour”. “The arrest of the ‘neighbour’s’ active service officer, who publicly confessed to his state’s involvement in perpetrating and financing terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan, surprisingly did not prompt any statement from the US,” Zakaria said.

He was referring to RAW agent Kulbushan Jadhav arrested in Balochistan in March this year who confessed in a video statement that the Indian spy agency had been involved in destabilising Pakistan.



“I also wish to remind the US deputy spokesperson of the statement by Chuck Hagel in February 2013 that Pakistan’s ‘neighbour’ uses the soil of another ‘neighbour’ of Pakistan to finance instability in Pakistan,” he added.  “Gen McChrystal’s 2009 report had also mentioned the ‘neighbour’s’ activities from the territory of another of Pakistan’s ‘neighbours, ‘and that they could be detrimental to stability in Pakistan and the region.”

“The factors behind spread of terrorism in Pakistan and the colossal losses inflicted on Pakistan in terms of loss of over 60,000 innocent lives and billions of dollars worth of loss to the economy are obvious now,” Zakaria said.

“Given these ground realities together with the inhuman treatment meted out by the ‘neighbour’s’ forces to the defenceless and innocent people struggling for their right to self-determination, the remarks of the US deputy spokesperson  are misplaced and are not sensitive to Pakistan’s security concerns,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2016.