Pakistan Views

US-led forces launched a raid inside Pakistan on Wednesday, a senior US military official said, in the first known US ground assault in Pakistan tribal region against a suspected Taliban hideout.

Pakistani government has condemned the attack, saying it killed at least 20 people including women and children.

The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred on Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn’t provide any other details.

Foreign Ministry of Pakistan protested saying US-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in South Waziristan. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent foreign missile strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist groups.

US military and civilian officials declined to respond directly to Pakistan’s complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target of any raid like that reported on Wednesday would have to be extremely important to risk an almost assured “big backlash” from Pakistan.

“You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of Pakistani co-operation,” the official said.

Pakistani officials said they were lodging strong protests with the US government and its military representative in Islamabad about Wednesday’s raid in the South Waziristan area, a notorious hot bed of militant activity.

The Foreign Ministry called the strike “a gross violation of Pakistan’s territory,” saying it could “undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish.”

The United States said on Monday that the withdrawal of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s party Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) from the ruling coalition would not hamper joint ‘war on terror’ efforts.

“That is very much an internal Pakistan matter,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. “I don’t anticipate it would have any impact on our joint efforts to combat extremism.”

He said that it was “important” for Pakistan and the United States to co-operate closely on fighting the Taliban and other militants “who threaten the stability not only in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan.”

Nawaz Sharif said on Monday after a meeting of his party PML-N which was the second largest party in the coalition — that it would quit the coalition over differences on the restoration of judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf.

The political showdown came two weeks before lawmakers were to choose a new president following Musharraf’s resignation one week ago, and as Pakistan tries to keep a lid on militants from the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Nawaz had set on Monday deadline for some 60 judges to be reinstated, but Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — the largest in the coalition — had refused to give a time frame on when that would happen.

Musharraf sacked the judges last year under emergency rule to ensure there would be no legal challenges to his re-election as president while holding the dual role as head of the powerful military.

On Washington’s position on the sacked judges, Wood said it had advocated “all along that whatever happens with regard to those judges, they be in accordance with Pakistan’s constitution.

“And that remains our policy,” he said.

The political bickering has underlined concerns for Pakistan’s stability as the country battles militants in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border.

The United States said Tuesday it would study any application for asylum by ex- president Pervez Musharraf but pointed out that no such bid had been made so far.

“We haven’t been asked to provide him with any asylum or place of residence,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said amid speculations that the former staunch US “war on terror” ally who quit Monday might stay abroad, including in the United States.

“If he chooses to take up residence somewhere, I mean if he were to request that, we would obviously look at it, but it’s not an issue that we’ve been approached with,” Wood explained. There has been much speculation on what will happen to Musharraf after his resignation in the face of looming impeachment charges and whether he will remain in Pakistan.

Among countries cited in unconfirmed reports about his alleged asylum plans were Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain, the United Arab Emirates or Turkey. One report said that Pakistan’s army and the United States had brokered a deal with the ruling coalition in Islamabad for him to avoid criminal charges.

Officials from both the coalition and the security services said in Islamabad that Musharraf would travel to close ally Saudi Arabia in the coming days to perform Umrah. A senior coalition official said that Musharraf would then head for London or Turkey, but his aides insisted he would return after his religious duties in the Gulf kingdom.

A US court on Monday ordered medical care for Aafia Siddiqui who said to be seriously sick since being shot last month in an alleged struggle with US officers in Afghanistan.

Aafia Siddiqui, whose case has drawn protests in Pakistan and the attention of human rights activists, entered the Manhattan courtroom in a wheelchair.

She was brought to the United States a week ago and is to be tried on charges of attempted murder and assault against FBI and US army officers in an Afghan town on July 18.

Her lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, told a packed courtroom that Siddiqui had not received proper medical care since being shot in the alleged incident.

“She needs to be taken out of custody and put in a hospital. She’s been here for one week and hasn’t seen a doctor,” Fink said.

Another defense lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, said Siddiqui was a physical wreck following both the shooting and a five-year period in which the once high-flying US university neuroscience graduate disappeared.

Campaigners and relatives claim she was being held for much of that time in a secret US prison in Afghanistan, following accusations by US officials that she had ties to al Qaeda.

The United States, which has never pressed Qaeda-linked charges against Siddiqui, says it has no idea where she spent that period.

US prosecutors say she was detained July 17 by Pakistani police after acting suspiciously. The following day she allegedly grabbed a rifle in the police station and shot at visiting US servicemen — who returned fire.

Siddiqui’s lawyers reject the charges.

She “has gunshot wounds to the abdomen — we are not sure how many — and a long line of stitches from her breast plate to her belly button,” Sharp said. “She understands she lost part of her intestines. Digestion is an issue. She’s reporting bleeding.”

Prosecutors said Siddiqui had been provided with adequate medical care since her detention in Afghanistan. However, they were unable to confirm whether she had been seen in New York by a doctor or merely a paramedic.

The judge ruled that “the defendant be examined by a medical doctor within 24 hours.” The doctor will advise whether Siddiqui can remain in prison, or should be moved, as requested by her lawyers, to a hospital.

“It’s a complicated situation,” the prosecutor said. “Two and a half weeks ago, Ms Siddiqui tried to shoot her way out…. She’s a high security risk.”

Fink responded by gesturing to the hunched figure of Siddiqui, almost hidden from public view by her wheelchair: “This is a person who can’t walk.”

The court had been due to decide whether or not to grant Siddiqui bail pending trial, but this was delayed until an unspecified date. A new date for a preliminary hearing was set for September 3.

The Bush administration plans to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counterterrorism programs to upgrading that country’s aging F-16 fighter planes.

According to a repor appearing in the New York Times, the State Department officials insist the plan will greatly enhance the F-16s’ ability to strike insurgents in FATA and tribal areas.

The officials said Congress is weighing the plan. The aid was sanctioned for the up gradation of two P3 petrol planes and Cobra helicopters.

The United States will convince Pakistan not to vote against the India-specific safeguards agreement when the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in Vienna, Austria, later this month or early next month to give its approval to it, said US Ambassador to India, David C Mulford.

Conveying this message through a phone with select media at the American Centre here from Washington, Ambassador Mulford said he was well aware of Islamabad’s reservations on the pact and on the US-India civil nuclear co-operation agreement, and expressed conviction about the Bush Administration’s ability to “persuade” Pakistan to cooperate on the matter.

“We will address Pakistan’s role at the IAEA,” he said. He said that the US is keen to present the bilateral legislation before the US Congress in the early part of September, following a meeting of the IAEA and two meetings of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (IAEA).

The United States on Friday said it is helping both Pakistan and Afghanistan work through the issues related to the “tough problem” of controlling their border and expressed the hope for continued communications between the two neighbours.

“It is a tough problem controlling that border, there are issues on the Pakistani side, there are issues on the Afghan side, and we are helping both sides work through these issues and would expect that the communications between the Afghans and the Pakistanis will also continue,” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He cited the recent co-operative effort by anti-terrorism partners in the joint investigation into last month’s incident on a Pakistani border post in the Pakistani tribal area. McCormack said while the findings were different the partners agreed they would increase resources to help personnel on both sides of the border in terms of border posts, improved communication and, demarcate the border where the line is.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan ’sooner rather than later,’ signaling a shift in priorities from Iraq amid warnings of an accelerating Taliban threat.

Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said Pakistan needed to do more to stop the unimpeded flow of Taliban and other fighters into Afghanistan in Pakistan.

“There is a real need to do something on the Pakistani side of the border to bring pressure to bear on the Taliban and some of these other violent groups,” Gates said.

The US defense chief denied as “untrue” a report that US forces were massing on the border to go into Pakistan. But he did not rule out unilateral military action across the border.

The growing threat was cited by US commanders in Afghanistan in their requests for some 10,000 more troops, as well as a doubling of the number of mine resistant, armor protected vehicles (MRAPS) they now have to protect troops from roadside explosions.

Alarm over the deteriorating security was punctuated Sunday by the death of nine US soldiers in an insurgent attack on a combat outpost, the deadliest on US forces since 2005.

“It’s a tougher fight; it’s a more complex fight; and (commanders) need more troops to have the long-term impact that we all want to have there,” Mullen said.

“I think we are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later,” said Gates, adding that no decisions have been taken yet.

A senior military official said the focus is on sending more “enabling capabilities” such as military engineers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets, aviation assets, and civil affairs units.

“There is a very clear, conscious effort to flow as much to Afghanistan as fast as we can get it there,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Mullen, who just returned from visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he expected to be able to recommend further US troop cuts this year in Iraq if security conditions continue to improve.

In the past Mullen has tied any significant increase in US forces in Afghanistan to deeper troop cuts in Iraq.

Currently there are 36,000 US troops in Afghanistan and 150,000 in Iraq.

“Security is unquestionably and remarkably better” in Iraq, Mullen said.

But he portrayed the situation in Afghanistan in more urgent terms.

“One need look no further than the well-coordinated attack on Wanat outpost this weekend to see that the enemy has grown bolder, more sophisticated and diverse,” Mullen said.

“The bottom line is this: we are seeing a greater number of insurgents and foreign fighters flowing across the border with Pakistan unmolested and unhindered. This movement needs to stop,” he said.

Mullen said the group that launched the attack trained in safe havens in Pakistan.

“We see this threat accelerating, almost becoming a syndicate of different groups who heretofore had not worked closely together,” he said.

Mullen added: “It’s very clear that additional troops will have a big impact on insurgents coming across that border.

“It would be much better if there was that pressure on the Pakistani side. But clearly additional troops there would have a significant impact,” he said.

Mullen said that in his meetings with Pakistani leaders he emphasized the need to do more to control their border. But he would not comment on their response.

New civilian government of Pakistan pulled army troops out of its Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on the Afghan border in March, in a move that has lifted the pressure on militant groups in Pakistan.

Gates, who said attacks inside Pakistan have doubled in the past year, said the country’s new civilian government should understand that the militants pose a growing danger to it as well.

The US has expressed concern over the bombings in Islamabad and Afghanistan and said that Pakistan is not involved in Kabul suicide bombing, State Department acting spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.

Gallegos said US will continue to work with the new elected government in Islamabad in fighting the common enemy of terrorism, while letting Pakistanis make their own decisions.

“We’ll continue to work with the Pakistani government to fight our common enemy, which is these terrorist extremists who are willing to kill Muslims, Christians, anybody who gets in the way of the path which is what they seek, which is instability and chaos, so that they can prosper under that realm,” he said.

“We believe that the Pakistani people have the right to make these decisions for themselves. We’re going to engage with them to allow them to do that and hopefully we’ll march towards peace,” he said.

On Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s forthcoming visit to Washington, Gallegos said: “The Pakistani people have made their decision on who their leaders will be. We stand behind them and we’re working with them.”

Stressing Pakistan’s sovereignty, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has advised caution against any suggestions for US unilateral action against terrorists that may be hiding on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border. Commenting on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s suggestions, Rice told an American TV channel that Washington has been working co-operatively with the South Asian ally to curb terrorism threat along Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

“The United States is acting with Pakistan to deal with the terrorism threat. One has to be a little careful about what you say about the territory of a sovereign state with which you are not at war.

And so we have done this in working with the Pakistanis and working together to share intelligence and working together to deal with threats when they emerge,” she told Bloomberg TV channel. The top US diplomat said everybody needs to do more in the fight against terrorism.

“Do we need to do more? Absolutely. Everybody needs to do more. But I would be very careful with what I say about the territory of a sovereign state.” Acknowledging the complexity of the problem in the rugged and historically ungoverned Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, she pointed out the region “is very difficult for anyone to govern and very difficult for anyone to operate in.”

Rice said the US Administration has been actively co-operating with Pakistan “whether it is on the matter of democracy, where we were very active in pushing for democratic change in Pakistan, or in the work that we have done to help the Pakistanis deal with a terrorism threat that is a threat not just to the United States, not just to Afghanistan, but also to Pakistan.”

“After all, it was the network in that region that assassinated Benazir Bhutto. And so this is a threat to Pakistan as well,” she remarked. She also noted counterterrorism successes in the region over the past years.