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Journalism of Courage
In a strong response to the United States’ repeated criticism on the issue of terrorism, Pakistan has said that people like Hafiz Saeed, who masterminded the Mumbai terror attack, are a liability to the country and it needs time to get rid of them. Mincing no words at the Asia Society forum on Tuesday evening, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said it was very easy to say that Islamabad was floating the Haqqani network as well as Hafiz Saeed and his former Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Asif added that Pakistan can’t be blamed for terrorists like Hafiz Saeed saying Washington considered such men as “darlings” until a few years ago.
“They are liabilities. I accept, they are liabilities but give us time to get rid of these liabilities because we don’t have assets to match these liabilities and you are increasing the them further,” the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Asif as saying.
US President Donald Trump had last month criticised Pakistan for its support to terror groups, saying it receives billions in US aid but continues to harbour militants. “Don’t blame us for Haqqanis or don’t blame us for the Hafiz Saeeds. These were the people who were your darlings just 20 to 30 years back. They were being dined and wined in the White House and now you say go to hell Pakistanis because you are nurturing these people.”
Hafiz Saeed is accused by India of masterminding the Mumbai carnage of November 2008 that left 166 Indians and foreigners dead. New Delhi has been repeatedly asking Islamabad to prosecute him for his crimes. Asif said Pakistan was ready to work with the US for effective management of the Afghan border to stop terrorist infiltration and to facilitate a peace settlement in Afghanistan.
Talking about Pakistan’s sour relations with India, the minister said that a new initiative was needed to bring India and Pakistan to the negotiating table. He said that the need to discuss all issues, including the decades-old Kashmir dispute — the main source of tension between the two countries.
“Peace in the neighbourhood is impossible to achieve unless relations with India improve. Pakistan reached out to India to seek normalisation of relations and resolution of all disputes through dialogue and engagement, but India did not reciprocate,” Asif claimed.
Pakistan is ready to work with India to seek peaceful resolution of all disputes and to create an environment of peace and stability allowing the people of the two countries to realise their aspirations of prosperity and development, the minister added.
He underlined that there was no military solution to the dragging conflict in Afghanistan. “Scapegoating Pakistan for all the Afghan ills is neither fair nor accurate… This will only help forces that we are trying to fight collectively.”
Pakistan, he said, had done all it could to facilitate a political settlement in Afghanistan, making sure that Pakistani soil was not used against any country. “We are mindful of the strong desire in the US to bring the ‘long war’ in Afghanistan to an end. We support this objective wholeheartedly and are ready to help in any way we could to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
He made it clear that there were clear limits to what Pakistan could do vis-a-vis Afghanistan. “We cannot take responsibility for Afghanistan’s peace and security and be asked to achieve what the combined strength of some of the most powerful and richest countries could not accomplish,” he told the audience.
(With inputs from agencies)
