Pakistan

Hunting terrorists: Pakistan,US to form joint intelligence team

The move comes after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Pakistan a list of five wanted militant leaders.

Express June 02, 2011

In a step to restore badly hurt mutual trust, the US and Pakistan have decided to form a joint intelligence team that will act against top militant targets in Pakistan.

The move comes after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Pakistan a list of five wanted militant leaders, demanding information on them.

US and Pakistani officials have told news agencies that the team will be made up of mostly intelligence officials from both countries and their prime aim will be to act against the five militant leaders named in the list, all of whom the US believes are hiding in Pakistan.

The joint intelligence team will go after five top targets, including al Qaeda's second in command Ayman alZawahri, and alQaeda operations chief Atiya Abdel Rahman, as well as Taliban leader Mullah Omar, all of whom US intelligence officials believe are hiding in Pakistan, one US official said.

Another target is Siraj Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani tribe in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Allied with the Taliban and al Qaida, the Haqqanis are behind some of the deadliest attacks against US troops and Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.

COMMENTS (9)

AMJAD | 13 years ago | Reply @ For ghairatmand I appreciate your desire for peace between Pakistan and India. I hope and pray that saner elements on both side of the divide will use their influence on their respective Governments to bring about durable peace to the subcontinent. Now in response to the points raised by you, I would say that Pakistan is not harbouring any terrorist. Omar Sheikh has been awarded death sentence by the court and he is in Jail for the last 9 years. Ilyas Kashmiri was a wanted criminal. He has been killed today in Waziristan. Masood Azhar is also suspected to be involved in various acts of terrorism but long time ago he had escaped to lawless Waziristan. As for as Dawood Ibrahim is concerned, according to my information he is in hiding in India or in one of the Gulf states. People said to be involved in 26/11 are in jail and their trial is in progress. Your assertion about terrorism in Kashmir is not correct. During the last 15 years, Indian forces have martyred 75000 Kashmiri young men and molested scores of young Kashmiri girls which is the worst type of state sponsored terrorism. In your response to my earlier note you have not commented on or challenged any of my statement. Instead the focus of your write up seems to be the criticism of Pakistan Army and the ISI. Indians may hate these institutions but people of Pakistan love and respect them because they have always acted and offered sacrifices to protect Pakistan’s national interests. People of Pakistan blame India’s RAW for various acts of terrorism in Pakistan . I am sure due to their terrorist activities in Pakistan people of India will not start hating RAW. My dear brother from your write up the impression which I have gathered is that you have too many wrong perceptions about Pakistan. I can assure you that things are not that bad as these are depicted in Indian press. Surely our economy is not in good shape but the reason is understandable. US invasion of Afghanistan has put our progress on hold. I would suggest that you should find some time to pay a visit to Pakistan to see the things for yourself. I shall be too happy to be your host.

ghairatmand | 13 years ago | Reply @AMJAD - bhai jaan, what I am going to say here will be only taken as "Indian" response and would immediately marred by prejudices existing between us. But isn't it the fact that people like Illiyas Kashmiri, Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Sheikh ( who was released during Indian flight Hijack) are in Kashmir. Dawood Ibrahim has been proved to be in Kashmir. OBL was found in Kashmir. All 26/11 perpetrators are not just in Kashmir but very well shielded by establishment. If the establishment was even a bit serious then in face of world criticism and proof provided by not just Indians but other agencies it should have taken action. Instead it tries hard to cover up and dragging the case so slow hoping it will fade away from people's mind. The very fact OBL was found in Pakistan shows how confident the most wanted terrorist was that he is much safer in Pakistan then anywhere else. Where does such confidence come from ? If Pakistan was indeed a nation who takes serious action against terrorists, then how come OBL landed there and resided there for 5 years ? Why did not he try to hide elsewhere like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma and lot other countries which according to Pakistan does not have strong or smart intelligence agency as ISI. Any reply I get from Pakistani about the qualification and capability of ISI is always contradictory and just made up to suit their side of argument. In your quest to defend your country and army and ISI, you keep forgetting a basic question "why is Pakistan in such a state" , and for a moment try to think of something different than the fairy tale answer of "RAW/CIA/MOSSAD" . Seriously do you think people in USA India and Israel wake up to decide what to do with Pakistan today ? Seriously is Pakistan that weak and naive to let others play with them as and when needed ? If that is true then why held the false pride in your nation, army and ISI who cannot protect it's citizen ? All this behavior what you exhibit is the reflection of a society where questioning to higher ups whether it is Allah or ISI / Army is strictly forbidden. And where it is expected that the citizens just follow the words of mullah or Army / ISI without questioning or understanding it. Please my brother, don't take it as personal vendetta against you or your countrymen. I still believe and look at you as one of my own, whether you like or not or you accept or not, we have common roots. And for sake of that common root I still hope someday there will be peace between us and we will see more reasons on why we should embrace each other and not fight.

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AMJAD | 13 years ago | Reply Response to ghairatmand Keep yelling that Pakistan is a safe heaven for terrorists but let me make it clear to you that it is not. In fact those terrorists who commit gory acts of terrorism in Pakistan and kill the innocent women and children have safe heavens provided to them by Pakistan's Eastern and western neighbours. Pakistan is on record having apprehended more than 500 most wanted Al-Qaida and Taliban leaders and turned over to the CIA. This haul also included Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the master mind of 9/11 terrorist act and the murderer of Daniel Pearl. During the last decade, Pakistan's support to global war on terrorism has been so massive that only an ungrateful hypocrite can deny the fact. Without being prejudiced, just imagine the shape of war if Pakistan's support would not have been there. Today the world in general and South Asia in Particular is much safer due to Pakistan's support and sacrifices. Now it is the time for others to come out and share the burden with Pakistan than to keep on heaping up baseless allegations. Al-Qaida is not Pakistan's creation that it will like to protect. Al-Qaida is Pakistan's enemy too, that is why Pakistan has arrested most of its high profile leaders. Now those who say that terrorists have safe heavens in Pakistan should provide accurate actionable intelligence and Pakistan will not waste any time in killing or apprehending the terror perpetrators. On the other hand it is the responsibility of US, NATO and Afghan forces to destroy the safe heavens of those terrorists who have been crossing over to Pakistan from Afghanistan and attacking Pakistan's villages and security check posts. Till this day US and NATO forces have done nothing to destroy the safe heavens of anti Pakistan terrorists located on the Afghan soil. People of Pakistan are keenly watching the US and NATO response so that the sincerity of Pakistan.s partners in War on Terror can be judged.

ghairatmand | 13 years ago | Reply Is it only me or others did note the underlying statement here, that all of these most wanted terrorists are in safe heaven called Pakistan ? Still want to blame others for your misfortunes ?

AMJAD | 13 years ago | Reply Honest intelligence sharing by both the countries will help in trust building and will yield better results.

S.R.H. Hashmi | 13 years ago | Reply It is really shameful that even the highest of our officials do not stand their ground in front of Americans. Pakistan felt offended, and rightly so, at the violation of its sovereignty over the Abbottabad incident. It was announced then that the intelligence cooperation with Americans is finished. But to add insult to injury, the Americans categorically stated that they will not apologize over the incident. Also, the drone attacks are continuing. We even had NATO helicopters violating our airspace and firing at our check post injuring our personnel. Then two NATO helicopters landed in the tribal areas, arrested five persons and took them to Afghanistan, which incident was confirmed by the political agent but was denied by other Pakistani officials and the US embassy. During her recent visit to Pakistan, Hillary Clinton gave a wish list, or rather a command list, of things she wants us to do. Now, our officials right up to the top are shaken and are busy working out ways how best to comply with the orders and have even revived intelligence-sharing and joint operations. The top officials of the strongest, militarily, of all Muslim countries, and a nuclear power, ought to show some strength instead of just behaving as the lowly subordinates of Americans

Hedgefunder | 13 years ago | Reply Another drama, for the stupid audience, stupid enough to believe it!! The US will never trust Pak Army in another operation involving High Value Targets of AQ. They only trust themselves to do the job, as there are too many leaks suspected from all others involved in this game.

Cautious | 13 years ago | Reply You had USA intelligence officers working on the ground with Pakistani military already -- and when the public found out about it there were cries of violating your sovereignty. Why is this any different? Better yet -- why was anyone crying about violating sovereignty when the USA troops were working along side Pakistani troops with express permission of the govt?

Really? | 13 years ago | Reply Muhahahhaaaa...

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