ISLAMABAD: Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to discuss the new US Afghan war strategy, which Washington says hinges on Pakistan’s own battle against extremists.
Mullen had earlier held a separate meeting with COAS General Kayani on Wednesday morning, a senior military official told AFP.
Pakistan has launched multiple offensives against insurgents this year, but Washington is pushing them to go after the Al-Qaeda leadership, the Afghan Taliban, and other groups seeking sanctuary in the Pakistan-Afghan border area.
The military sent 30,000 troops into Taliban stronghold South Waziristan in October, and is now pursuing insurgents believed to have fled to the other six districts that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Islamabad is primarily targeting the Pakistani Taliban, behind most of a wave of attacks that have killed more than 2,700 people since July 2007.
Top US officials, however, want Pakistan to also concentrate on dismantling militant groups with their eye over the border.
The Haqqani network, a powerful Afghan group with bases in North Waziristan, has links to Al-Qaeda and is known for attacks in Afghanistan, but so far has not been the target of a major offensive by Pakistan’s military.
Another deeply controversial issue is the alleged presence of Afghan Taliban including supreme Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Pakistan’s south-western city of Quetta – accusations Islamabad repeatedly denies.
Visiting Afghanistan earlier this week, Mullen expressed concern about ‘growing’ collusion between Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups sheltering in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Mullen arrived in Pakistan Tuesday and met General Tariq Majid, ceremonial head of the armed forces, with US President Barack Obama’s plan for turning around the unpopular Afghan war topping the agenda.
Obama’s plan – of deploying an extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan and a July 2011 deadline for withdrawal of US forces – has been criticised in Pakistan, as officials and analysts fear a troop surge in Afghanistan will send militants into Pakistan, while a drawdown date will embolden Islamist insurgents on both sides of the border.
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