US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday there was no evidence that Pakistani government leaders knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding, following talks in Islamabad a month after he was killed.
Clinton, however, said that Pakistani officials had said that "somebody, somewhere" was providing support for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan before he was killed by US forces this month.
The secretary of state said that both Pakistan and the United States had more work to be done to fight militancy, saying their relations had reached a turning point. She urged the country to take decisive steps to defeat al Qaeda.
"Pakistan should understand that anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make the problem disappear," Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad Friday morning, on a short visit to discuss how both countries can rebuild trust to fight the war against terrorism.
The Foreign Office said Clinton’s visit would help rebuild trust between Islamabad and Washington.
Clinton is the highest-ranking US official to visit Pakistan since the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabbad on May 2.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, is already in Pakistan for talks on several issues of mutual interest.
Express 24/7 correspondent Sumera Khan reported that the purpose of this trip is to rebuild the trust deficit between the two allies in the war on terror.
“The matter is not simple,” adds Khan. “Experts in Islamabad do not want Clinton’s visit to be brief and feel that the US should realise the sensitivity of the situation and the deteriorating security situation.”
According to AFP, Clinton was supposed to meet President Zardari, General Kayani and the chief of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the State Department said.
Clinton will be accompanied in the meetings by chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and is expected to demand more cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The United States said that Pakistan has failed to grasp just how much more it must do to quash militancy, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad amid tense relations over the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The discovery of the al Qaeda leader in a garrison town just 50 km (30 miles) away from the capital, Islamabad, on May 2 raised fresh doubts about Pakistan’s reliability as a partner in the US-led war on militancy.
“They have cooperated; we have always wanted more,” a US official told reporters travelling on Clinton’s plane ahead of the surprise visit.
“They have actually, from their perspective, done a lot. What they have never really grasped is how much more they have to do in order to protect themselves and, from our point of view, protect our interests and assist us in ways that are going to facilitate our transition in Afghanistan.”
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