ISLAMABAD: The United States should focus on defeating Muslim militant enemies inside Afghanistan instead of blaming Pakistan for its failure, Pakistani officials said on Monday.
Washington accused Pakistan on Saturday of having links to the Haqqani network, which Washington blames for an attack on the US Embassy and other targets in Kabul, and said the government in Islamabad must cut those ties.
"Whenever big attacks in Kabul or elsewhere in Afghanistan take place this blame game starts," a senior military official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
"Instead of blaming us, they should take action against terrorists on their side of the border."
In blunt remarks, the US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, told Radio Pakistan there was evidence linking the Haqqanis to the Islamabad government.
Washington has long blamed militants sheltering in Pakistan for violence in Afghanistan. Islamabad says its forces are taking high casualties fighting insurgents and bristles at any suggestion it provides support for fighters.
Some 5,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed since the South Asian country joined the US "war on terror" after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.
The Haqqani network is one of three, and perhaps the most feared, of the Taliban-allied insurgent factions fighting US-led NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.
Insurgents in a bomb-laden truck occupied a building in Kabul last week, raining rockets and gunfire on the US Embassy and other targets in the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital, and battled police during a 20 hour siege.
Five Afghan police and 11 civilians were killed.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan last week the United States would "do everything we can" to defend US forces from Pakistan-based militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Pakistan in 3-1/2 hours of talks on Sunday to attack the Haqqani network, a senior US official said.
The official said the issue of counter-terrorism in general and the Haqqani network in particular were the first and last topics discussed by Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.
"They (the Americans) say militants come from Pakistan but they travel up to Kabul and no one arrests them all the way to Kabul. It is their responsibility (to arrest them there) not ours," said the senior Pakistani military official.
Washington blames militants sheltering in Pakistan for violence in Afghanistan. The discovery of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he was killed this year by US commandos, has aggravated tensions between the two countries.
The allies recently spoke of strong counter-terrorism cooperation, suggesting they had put behind them bitterness over the unilateral raid that killed bin Laden.
But Munter indicated ties with Pakistan, which relies on billions of dollars of US aid, were still heavily strained.
"These relations today need a lot of work," he said.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told Reuters the two sides needed to work towards a "friction-free relationship".
"Any perceptional differences warrant deeper engagement and that is taking place," she said.
Ties between Washington and Islamabad are often uneasy. The Haqqani network is one of the most divisive issues.
"Terrorism and extremism are a much bigger threat to Pakistan than to the United States," said Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.
COMMENTS (4)
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Just do as they say. Pakistan Army is digging a bigger hole for itself and endangering the lives of innocent civilians. You see playing with a superpower is a dangerous game. Help the Americans in getting rid of the Haqqani network otherwise they will get rid of you.
Instead of starting a fight with elephants its better we put our own house in order ... If they are saying people from our side of border are crossing and our reply is that people from other side of border are crossing into our country and both are creating anarchy and destruction. Then sit together and instead of wasting billions in other things just fence and seal the border completely and make a high wall on the border .. make check posts in these areas from where they are crossing it and have mobile patrols and then send back the refugees so they won't need to cross it on daily basis. But perhaps its too much to ask our naive leaders who don't do any thing to sort out the mess.
This is a classic case of finding a scapegoat i.e. Pakistan
Can U.S answer the following questions:
1-Did Pakistan stop U.S from landing troops in Tora Bora rather than allowing Osama to escape ?
2-Did Pakistan ask America to invade Iraq and divert focus from Afghanistan when Taliban were nearly defeated in Afghanistan?
3-Did Pakistan ask America to allow free hand to Indians in Afghanistan & they creating havoc in Pakistan?
Now that Osama has been killed why does not America look for peace talks rather than war?Taliban had never supported any attack on America so what is the present war about?