'Pakistan must close Taliban bases that train anti-India militants'
31 Jan 2009, 1240 hrs IST, IANS
WASHINGTON: Getting Islamabad's cooperation to close Taliban sanctuaries in its tribal areas may be Washington's single hardest challenge as Pakistan has always used them to train people to operate in Kashmir or India, says a leading US expert.
Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on South Asia who has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pentagon and National Security Council, says new special envoy Richard Holbrooke needs to reverse the negative momentum in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Taliban's military successes in Afghanistan have to be reversed and Islamabad must help close their sanctuaries on Pakistani territory, he said in an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank.
But Riedel says "trying to get that cooperation out of the Pakistani government in my judgment will be the single hardest test that Ambassador Holbrooke faces and in fact may be the single hardest foreign policy challenge President (Barack) Obama faces". The Pakistani military is of two minds about the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan, he said.
It has always used FATA "as the place where it could create groups like the Taliban, or encourage the development of the Taliban, where it could train people to operate in Kashmir or to operate in India".
"But now that it sees that it's losing control of that area, it's increasingly concerned about the future," Riedel added.
US Predator attacks on al-Qaida targets in that area had scored some important successes, but they had also helped further the alienation of the Pakistani people away from the US and badly eroded American brand image, Riedel said.
"Polling in Pakistan shows that a majority of Pakistanis blame America for the country's internal violence. India comes in second place, and the al-Qaida and militancy comes in third place," he said. "Any time that you are outpolling India as the bad guy in Pakistan, you're in deep, deep trouble."
Pakistan's concerns in Afghanistan derive in large part from its concerns about India, the expert said.
"It can't try to deal with these problems in isolation. But you also have to deal with them with a great degree of subtlety and sophistication, because there are decades-old fears among all the parties about American intentions," Riedel said.
WASHINGTON: Getting Islamabad's cooperation to close Taliban sanctuaries in its tribal areas may be Washington's single hardest challenge as Pakistan has always used them to train people to operate in Kashmir or India, says a leading US expert.
Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on South Asia who has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pentagon and National Security Council, says new special envoy Richard Holbrooke needs to reverse the negative momentum in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Taliban's military successes in Afghanistan have to be reversed and Islamabad must help close their sanctuaries on Pakistani territory, he said in an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank.
But Riedel says "trying to get that cooperation out of the Pakistani government in my judgment will be the single hardest test that Ambassador Holbrooke faces and in fact may be the single hardest foreign policy challenge President (Barack) Obama faces". The Pakistani military is of two minds about the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan, he said.
It has always used FATA "as the place where it could create groups like the Taliban, or encourage the development of the Taliban, where it could train people to operate in Kashmir or to operate in India".
"But now that it sees that it's losing control of that area, it's increasingly concerned about the future," Riedel added.
US Predator attacks on al-Qaida targets in that area had scored some important successes, but they had also helped further the alienation of the Pakistani people away from the US and badly eroded American brand image, Riedel said.
"Polling in Pakistan shows that a majority of Pakistanis blame America for the country's internal violence. India comes in second place, and the al-Qaida and militancy comes in third place," he said. "Any time that you are outpolling India as the bad guy in Pakistan, you're in deep, deep trouble."
Pakistan's concerns in Afghanistan derive in large part from its concerns about India, the expert said.
"It can't try to deal with these problems in isolation. But you also have to deal with them with a great degree of subtlety and sophistication, because there are decades-old fears among all the parties about American intentions," Riedel said.
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