If someone has to believe what John Kerry informed the press on his visit to Pakistan' visit they should find a better term than 'optimistic'. Kerry bluntly stated that as the US had eliminated most of the threat from Pakistan's tribal areas, therefore, drone strikes could end 'very, very soon'! We don't know whether he was serious or uninformed to what extent the ‘threat’ had been removed from Tribal Areas!
Who says that the threat from the groups holed up in tribal areas and elsewhere in Pakistan has subsided, on the contrary it has increased manifolds, Mr. Secretary of State! It's not only very much there, but has also changed into a monstrous tree of cannibalized branches which are hitting all around in South and Central Asia. Who can deny the nexus of Al-Qaeda with Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Haqqani Network, Islamic movements in Uzbekistan, Turkistan and China, Harkat-e-Jihad Islami, Harkat-Mujahideen and many others? In Pakistan, it's not only the tribal areas which are infected and infested with terrorists, but increased number of daring attacks on security forces elsewhere in Pakistan, frequent bold jailbreaks, straight out of a Hollywood or Bollywood hits, sectarian based terrorism to eliminate opponents, have forced the law enforcing agencies to retreat.
Even the authorities are unable to imprison, try and sentence high-profile terrorists, they get released from the under-threat courts, or increased number of jailbreaks take them back to safety and in worst case scenario, they operate their terrorist networks from their cells; thanks to widely available mobile phones and other communication tools. One would wish John Kerry had done his homework before coming to Pakistan, but maybe they don’t have enough regards for our intelligence!
MASOOD KHAN,
Saudi Arab, August 3.