Pakistan’s tribal region is the epicenter of terror for the world while the Quetta Shura and Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) pose a potential threat that need to be addressed without impatience and haste.He said this at Arizona State University‘s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Thursday in an interactive session with students, war veterans and members of the community.
Responding to a question by this correspondent, Admiral Mullen said Pakistan’s tribal areas were the epicenter of terror for the world. There was a need to pressurize the militant groups. Recent suicide bombings and killing of Punjab Salmaan Taseer and Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, were all “matters of significant concern” for the United States of America.
“Our relationship with the Pakistani military, which was cut from 1990 to 2000, has improved dramatically over the last several years. We are trying to fill that huge hole crated in the relationship between the two countries. We are building the trust we lost with Pakistan in 1990s. Its a critical part of the world. We are focused on various entities,” he said.
The Pakistani military has suffered ten thousand lives while battling the war against terror, he stated.
The Admiral added, “Whether it is TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakista), LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba, Afghan Taliban or the Quetta Shura, we are focused to get all those. An impatience (strategy) can’t get all this done very quickly,” he commented, and continued that he could not talk of a single operation regarding the possible expansion of drone strikes to Balochistan to hunt down the Quetta-Shura.
The US chairman of JCS termed Pakistan a “sovereign state” whose leadership and people, he added, had to to decide how to move forward in the war against terror. “You know your country better and you should figure out about dealing with these challenges,” he replied to the question.
“I don’t underestimate the challenge,” he admitted.
He said Pakistan’s internal problems had become “regional challenges”.
Responding to a question concerning the controversy over Raymond Davis, an alleged CIA agent charged with the murder of two Pakistani citizens, Mullen admitted that “it is a very tough time” for relations between Washington and Islamabad.
“I am very familiar with this (case) and would not say too many things publicly about it now. I think both the governments are working pretty hard to try to sustain this relationship through thick and thin, through times that are good and times that are tough and right now times are tough because of Raymond Davis case,” he said.
However, he said, he was hopeful that the leadership on the both sides would figure out “a way to allow us to put this case behind so that we move on other “very challenging issues” that we are facing in the region right now. He stressed on the need to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
http://www.thebalochhal.com/2011/03/pakistans-tribal-region-epicenter-of-terror-admiral-mike-mullen/
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