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| Pak turning blind eye to Taliban threat: US Congressman | | |
WASHINGTON, MAR 8
A senior US Congressional panel chief has said that Pakistan has made "a strategic decision" to turn a blind eye to the Taliban threat in the hope that they could be used in "regional manoeuvring against India and Iran" in the future.
"Indeed, I have long believed that the government of Pakistan has made a strategic decision to help us with Al Qaeda, but turn a blind towards the Taliban in the belief that their former allies will once again prove useful to them in their regional manoeuvring against India and Iran," said Gary Ackerman, Chairman of the Middle East/South Asia Sub Committee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"What other conclusion could one draw when our own military commanders testified that it is generally accepted that the Taliban leaders operate openly in Quetta, one of Pakistan's largest cities," Ackerman told Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs during the Sub Committee's hearing on the Capitol Hill.
Even as questioning Pakistan's efforts against terrorism, Ackerman also expressed concerns about the nature and the extent of "the nuclear Wal-Mart" run by disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan.
"But uneven efforts against terrorism is not the only place where Pakistan's cooperation has fallen short. There are still grave concerns about the nature and the extent of the nuclear Wal-Mart run by A.Q. Khan. To date, no agent or investigator of the US has had any great access to him," the Senior Democrat said.
"We have only the purported information from Khan passed to us by the government of Pakistan, a government which in one breath places him under house arrest, and in the next celebrates him as a national hero," Ackerman said. |
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