US warns Pakistan about letting terror grow
March 2nd, 2007 by ashish
It finally had to happen. Pakistan has remained the frontline state in the fight against terrorism, given that a significant portion of the terrorist conspiracies around the world originate in Pakistan. It remains speculation (firm speculation) that a large number of the Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants find shelter and provisions in the wild areas of Pakistan, and that the intelligence agencies of Pakistan play a role in making sure that these groups survive.
It seems a bit strange that these groups also threaten the Pakistani president, but given that these groups remain a source of power for fulfilling strategic objectives of Pakistan, it seems likely that these groups will continue to thrive, with sporadic statements about how these groups are being crushed and some figure gets allowed to be caught once in a while.
And then the agreement happened. Pakistan signed an agreement with the tribals of its wild provinces that Pakistan’s security agencies will no longer do any operations in those regions. In effect, forget the terms of the agreement, it was allowed to become a haven for the terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan. This was viewed with suspcision by everybody else, but Pakistan has played its image as a frontline state against terrorism so strongly that there was no firm stand against this agreement.
However, with the recent change in the control of the US congress, the US government has finally decided to act strongly. Hence Dick Cheney paid a short visit to Pakistan where he is supposed to have read out the riot act against Pakistan. I wonder how this will change the future ? Will this finally force Pakistan to give up its policy of using these groups as a bargaining chip ?
