America playing on General's mind

Ranjan Roy / TNN / Jan 13, 2007, 01:12 IST

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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is under pressure to convince US about seriousness to track down Osama.

ISLAMABAD: Even as Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf prepares for Saturday's meeting with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, his mind would be occupied not by Kashmir alone, which of course he will raise, but by more serious troubles threatening to debilitate his credibility as America's chief partner in the war on terror.
In an uncharacteristic harsh dressing down to his top security officers, Musharraf has asked federal and provincial governments to eradicate terrorism.
"The president is quite worried about the increasing crime rate in the country, especially cases of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism," federal interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said after the meeting which was held two days before Mukherjee was to land in Islamabad.
Containing terrorism is something Mukherjee will talk about with Musharraf and his counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, but beyond the Indians, the Pakistan leadership will have to convince Washington that Islamabad is as serious about tracking down Osama and his murderous band as White House is.

Even before Mukherjee could raise these issues with Musharraf, US director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, has in a report to the US Senate on Thursday said the Al-Qaida was rebuilding its strength from secure hideouts in Pakistan.
"Al-Qaida is the terrorist organisation that poses the greatest threat to US interests," Negroponte said. Pakistan's foreign ministry reacted angrily, saying he should have mentioned that successes against Al-Qaida were made possible by Pakistan and the focus should "remain on cooperation instead of questionable criticism".

While a joint statement expected on Saturday after talks between Mukherjee and Kasuri is likely to mention terrorism, remarks ahead of the meeting by Kasuri still show that Islamabad wasn't taking Indian warnings of terror still breeding on Pakistani soil seriously enough and wanted to focus on hobby horse Kashmir.
In an interview to Times Now, Kasuri denied that terrorists such as Dawood Ibrahim are operating out of Pakistan with impunity and rejected India's demand for extradition. "As far I am concerned he is not here. Frankly speaking we have said this in the past as well. I don't think the ground situation has changed."
Reacting to the statement made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he hoped India and Pakistan are able to agree on a treaty of peace, security and friendship, Kasuri said, "There has been a spate of confidence-building measures in the past, but that is not followed up by conflict resolution.
"Hence, I hope that the Prime Minister's proposal on peace treaty materialises, but he knows more than anybody else that all the conflicts must be resolved before that."

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