Pakistan

US warns Pakistan over terror: report

Afp May 09, 2010

WASHINGTON:

The United States warned Pakistan after the failed Times Square bombing that it must crack down on militants or face severe consequences, The New York Times reported late on Saturday.

Citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said US military commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal met with the Pakistani military commander General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad on Friday. He urged Pakistan to quickly begin a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda in North Waziristan.

The meeting came as US investigators grilled Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen whose large but poorly made bomb failed to detonate in New York's Times Square a week ago. He was arrested on Monday aboard a plane preparing to take off for Dubai.

Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired Pakistani Air Force officer, faces five terrorist charges in the United States.

US media reports said that Shahzad's family knew at least two key Pakistani militants involved in terrorist activities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan, in remarks published late on Friday, that it faced "very severe consequences" if a terror plot like the Times Square bombing were traced to the country, although she also acknowledged Pakistan's increased cooperation against terrorism.

The Times said that the new pressure from Washington was characterized by the Pakistani and US officials as a sharp turnaround from the relatively polite encouragement adopted by the administration of President Barack Obama in recent months. It came amid increasing debate within the administration about how to proceed in the war on terror that included even "a boots-on-the-ground presence" on Pakistani soil, the report said.

Though the bombing in Times Square failed, Shahzad's ability to move back and forth between the United States and Pakistan has heightened fears in the Obama administration that another attempt at a terrorist attack could succeed, the paper said.

"We are saying, Sorry, if there is a successful attack, we will have to act'" within Pakistan, one of the US officials is quoted in the report as saying.

COMMENTS (8)

fazal karim mahsud | 14 years ago | Reply dear friend as 2015 will come closer, Pakistan will have to face more difficult situations than this because this is a road map, hatched by America to make Pakistan a nuclear free and divide nation. I remember the reply of Condaliza Rice during her electoral campaign to the repeated question of John carry "that did your government have any plane towards the atomic bomb of Pakistan?" she replied " yes we have but cannot be disclose over here. so the whole drama is going towards making Pakistan a nuclear free zone.

salman | 14 years ago | Reply Pakistan should not allow the NATO supplies...... until US refuses at this statemen.......

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Mansoor Khalid | 14 years ago | Reply I think such reactions are justified. If our country faces any terror attack and we can trace the roots elsewhere, we would definitely request the other country to help with the proceedings. So there should not be any hype against it.

Farzad Piracha | 14 years ago | Reply The invasion is coming, The US will eventually break-up Pakistan into small regions and probably come to some agreement with India on control of it. The military will be dissolved and we will probably look similar to former Yugoslavia. I don't see Pakistanis rising up or united we are a weak people with ignorant minds and little intelligence.

TalhaAhmed | 14 years ago | Reply The US wants Pakistan to rout insurgent camps in Pakistan !! how ridiculous is this? Anyone with a modicum of commonsense should ask these war-obsessed pests that why the US couldn't push back the taliban in Helmand? why the earstern Afghanistan has become the most comfrotable sanctuary for the talibs? Why american troops still haven't been able to push back insurgents from Nuristan province? And why the US is too hell-bent on bringin talibs on table to talk things over? If americans, with the most advanced weapons couldn't put an end to insurgency, these realities should give Pakistanis a bit of a courage to seriously consider their stance on this useless war-on-terror. Pakistanis should now tell these war-mongering pests that they should first get rid of the talibs in Afghanistan(which i am certain they can never!) then they can dream of eliminating insurgents from N.Waziristan.

TalhaAhmed | 14 years ago | Reply Could it be any worse???????? Pakistani officials should come to their senses now ! the US has managed to shift its focus from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Dont our money-grubbing politicians ever wonder why Pakistan is in the limelight thesedays, when in reality americans came to Afghanistan with the pretext of huntin' down Alqaeda thugs !!! the mind boggles... It doesn't upset me how americans are capitalizing on Pakistan's weak position, because this is what they came here for, yanks didn't come here to teach crooked militants right from wrong, they certainly have bigger aims than our empty-headed politicians imagine. The most worrying aspect is the careless behavior of our officials who have even sold themselves to the US , but despite this, our politicians still haven't been able to bring a little smile on Uncle Sam's face, its worse than slavery.

nasim ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply It is highly disgraceful that while the Govt spokesmen say that we do not take dictation from anywhere we read every day stories like this.But this time it has crossed all limits and we are warned of the consequences.Is it not the time for the Govt to discuss this issue in the National Assembly?

ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply severe consequences? like what happened in iraq and afghanistan? you wanna now come into Pakistan? wow. definitely not fighting 'islam' based terrorism, in it for other reasons are we....

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