Pakistan must fight militant groups that threaten Afghan, Indian and US interests, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday as he offered sympathy for the victims of last month’s massacre of children at a Pakistani school.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan has long been suspected by the West of playing a double game, fighting some militants while supporting those its generals have regarded as strategic assets to be used against rivals and neighbors, India and Afghanistan.
Visiting Pakistan after going to India over the weekend, Kerry said all militant groups should be targeted to bring security to the region.
“Terror groups like the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e Taiba and other groups continue to pose a threat to Pakistan, to its neighbors and to the US,” Kerry told a news conference in Islamabad, listing some of the most feared groups. “And all of us have a responsibility to ensure that these groups do not gain a foothold, but rather are pushed back into the recesses of memory... Make no mistake. The task is a difficult one and it is not done.”
Most US-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan officially completed their combat mission last month, prompting concern about the stability of the region where insurgents have been increasingly aggressive in past months.
Following last month’s attack on the school in which 134 children were killed, Pakistan has promised to stop differentiating between “good” and “bad” militants and to step up operations against their hideouts on the Afghan border.
Although observers have noted some progress, most agree that Pakistan has yet to show that it is seriously committed to go after all groups equally, including the powerful Haqqani Network, which attacks targets in Afghanistan from its bases in Pakistan.
Kerry said Washington, which has spent billions of US dollars on military aid to Pakistan to help it fight insurgents, would provide an additional US$250 million in food, shelter and other assistance to help people displaced by conflict in tribal areas.
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