Kerry seeks world support for Pakistan’s terror fight

Acknowledges recent progress made by Islamabad against militants

NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called on all nations to be more supportive of Pakistan’s ‘difficult’ fight against militant groups, but urged Islamabad to push harder against militants hiding within its borders.

That call for support came as Washington and New Delhi called on Islamabad to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai 2008 and Pathankot 2016 attackers to justice.



"It is clear that Pakistan has work to do in order to push harder against its indigenous groups that are engaged in terrorist activities," Kerry said at the India Institute of Technology in New Delhi on Wednesday, the second day of a visit to India.

He said the United States had made it clear to Islamabad that it needs to act against groups such as the Taliban-linked Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) that are suspected of operating from Pakistan to launch attacks against its neighbours India and Afghanistan.

“They [Pakistan] must work with us – and we’ve made this very clear – to help clear the sanctuaries of bad actors who are affecting not only the relationship between Pakistan and India, but also our ability to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.”

However, there was some recognition from the US official of the magnitude of the challenge that Pakistan faces in combating terrorists.



"In fairness, the Pakistanis have suffered greatly from terrorism in their own country," Kerry said noting that over 50,000 people have been killed in the decade-long violence. “When they [Pakistan] do take actions, there’s usually a pretty intense pushback, a blowback, which raises the cost of doing this and makes it harder.”

He called on other states to be more supportive of Pakistan’s efforts against non-state actors. "All of us need to be supportive and also understanding of how difficult it is to take it [militant groups] on step by step," he said.



“We all need to work hard to try to help each other to be able to get rid of this problem of these non-state actor disrupters who are the greatest challenge to the security of all of us in the world today.”

Kerry acknowledged the recent push against militants with the military launching Khyber-III in the Rajgal valley of Khyber Agency on the border with Afghanistan to reinforce the deployment of troops along the Pak-Afghan border to effectively check movement of terrorists.

“I believe in the last months, progress is being made and the Pakistanis are moving at a greater pace.”

Justice for Mumbai, Pathankot

Later in the day, US and India called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai 2008 and Pathankot 2016 attackers to justice.

In a joint statement on their second strategic and commercial, the two sides resolved greater anti-terrorism cooperation, especially in the cyber-security and cyber-crime domain and elevating defense trade and technology sharing.

“The sides reiterated their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and reaffirmed their commitment to dismantle safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks such as Da’ish/ISIL, al Qaeda, LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad, D-Company and its affiliates and the Haqqani Network.”

In talks with Pakistan on Haqqani

Earlier on Wednesday, the US said it was in ‘constant’ contact with Islamabad about militant groups operating there.

“There is a constant conversation that we are having with our Pakistani partners about the threat posed by Haqqani and by other extremist groups there in the region and certainly operating inside Pakistan,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby told a daily news briefing in Washington.

Explaining the decision to withhold $300 million in Coalition Support Funds, Kirby said that these decisions were based on “active, fluid, dynamic conversations” that they had with Pakistani leaders.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2016.