*WASHINGTON*: Pakistan need not kill or capture militants such as membersof the Haqqani Network that use its territory to launch attacks inAfghanistan but could push them across the border instead, a senior USofficial said on Friday.
Evicting the militants would put them at risk of attack from Afghan and USforces trying to keep Afghanistan from becoming a launching pad for strikeson the West more than 16 years after September 11, 2001, attacks on NewYork and Washington.
The United States is pressuring Pakistan to cease providing sanctuary –which it denies giving – to Islamist militants unleashing chaos inneighbouring Afghanistan.
On January 4, Washington said it would suspend some security aid toIslamabad to get it to end support for the Afghan Taliban and the alliedHaqqani Network whose attacks in Afghanistan have killed US, Afghan andother forces.
The senior US official said in an interview that since the aid suspension –which US officials later said could affect as much as about $2 billion –the United States has not seen any sustained Pakistani effort against themilitants.
In the latest US-led push to spur Pakistani action, a globalmoney-laundering watchdog decided to put the country back on its terroristfinancing watch list, a Pakistani government official and a diplomat told*Reuters* in Islamabad.
The US official dismissed suggestions pressure from Washington may backfireand suggested that Pakistan might start by taking smaller, tactical steps,including forcing such groups into Afghanistan before the spring fightingseason begins.
“I don’t think Pakistan is feeling its oats. I think it’s feelingpressure,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Wehave their attention.”
The official said the United States did not have a specific timeline toassess Pakistani cooperation and would be looking to see if Islamabad wouldtake “tactical steps” such as “actions against … (the) Haqqanis, pushingthem across the border.
“They don’t have to arrest them or kill them … just get them intoAfghanistan, disrupt some of the infrastructure that exists, make it harderfor them,” the official added. “We are about two months away from thefighting season, so now is the time to do some of this.”
Some in the US government doubt Pakistan will comply.
In a February 13 statement to Congress, US Director of NationalIntelligence Dan Coats said Pakistan would maintain “its ties with militantgroups, restricting counter-terrorism cooperation” with the United States.