Source / Courtesy: Yahoo News
ISLAMABAD (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that extremists have been able to operate from Pakistani soil for too long, increasing pressure on Islamabad to crack down on Islamist militants destabilizing Afghanistan who are allegedly supported by the government.
Clinton is in Pakistan heading an unusually large delegation for two days of talks with civilian and military leaders in Pakistan. The delegation includes CIA director David Petraeus and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
The U.S. has become increasingly impatient with Pakistan’s refusal to take military action against the Haqqani militant network, which is based in the country’s rugged tribal region. The group is considered the greatest threat to American troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials have accused Pakistan’s military spy agency, the ISI, of providing it with support — an allegation denied by Islamabad.
“We should be able to agree that for too long extremists have been able to operate here in Pakistan and from Pakistani soil,” said Clinton in a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. “No one who targets innocent civilians, whether they be Pakistanis, Afghans, Americans or anyone else should be tolerated or protected.”
Clinton is also scheduled to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday. She and the other members of her delegation held a lengthy four-hour discussion with top Pakistani military and intelligence officials on Thursday.
Rafiq A. Tschannen
Dear Mrs. Clinton, Would your pre-decessors have paid attention in 1974 when the Government of Pakistan started a state sponsored persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community the world would not be in the state it is now. It is your governments actions which strengthened and even facilitated the birth of the so-called Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1981 it was your Government who blocked a UN Human Rights Vote to condemn Pakistan’s 1974 ‘constitutional amendment’. Where were you when in 1984 General Zia ul Haq instituted the ‘Marshall Law Ordinances’ prescribing 3 years in jail for any member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat who even said ‘Assalamo Alaikum’? Did you push any subsequent Governments to abolish this Ordinance? As a doctor would say: “If you leave a small amount of dirt in the wound it will not heal”. Consequently whatever you ask for, if you do not go to the root cause, the wound will continue to fester.