FO prefers to remain quiet
ALI HUSSAIN
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Saturday preferred to remain quiet on the US President Barack Obama's latest statement ahead of his crucial visit to India today (Sunday), asking Pakistan to shutdown the terrorists' 'safe havens' and bring the 2008 Mumbai attacks perpetrators to justice.
President Obama is arriving in India today (Sunday) where he is expected to sign a series of nuclear energy and defence-related agreements with India.
Ahead of his visit, President Obama, in an interview with an Indian magazine, once again sent a tough message to Pakistan on alleged "safe havens" of terrorists despite the fact that Pakistan has repeatedly declared that it is conducting a very "robust" and comprehensive military operation against all terrorists without any distinctions of the 'good and bad' terrorists.
"I've made it clear that even as the United States works with Pakistan to meet the threat of terrorism, safe havens within Pakistan are not acceptable and that those behind the Mumbai terrorist attack must face justice," President Obama told the magazine.
When contacted, Foreign Office spokespersons Tasnim Aslam declined to comment on President Obama's statement. "I've not seen US President's exact comments. I cannot comment on the basis of Indian media reports," the spokesperson stated in a text message to this correspondent.
To another question, she stated "I don't have any comments on the US President's bilateral visit to India".
On Thursday, to a question in her weekly press briefing regarding Pakistan's expectations from President Obama's visit to India, the spokesperson said "we do not comment on bilateral relations between other countries."
However, she added as a global power and a power that is very much engaged with this region and is interested in peace and stability, Pakistan expects that the US President would take up the issue of recent escalation by India on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary in which many innocent Pakistanis and Kashmiris have been martyred.
"At a time when Pakistan is in the midst of a very robust and broad operation against terrorists in North Waziristan this kind of distraction can only mean one thing: that there are people who would not like to see Pakistan succeed and that is not in the interest of anyone, that is not in the interest of US, India and the international community," she added.
Lt-Gen. Talat Masood (retd), a senior defence analyst, while commenting on President Obama's statement, said the US President actually wanted to please India, which wants to maintain its hegemony over the region.
He added that there are expectations in Pakistan from President Obama's visit to India notably to convince the Indian leadership to resolve all the outstanding issues with Pakistan through a dialogue process and to play his due role in easing the border tension.
Haji Mohammad Adeel, chairman Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, while commenting on President Obama's statement, said that Pakistan has already launched a comprehensive military operation against terrorists and the authorities concerned have repeatedly made it clear that the action is against all the militants without any distinction between a "good" or "bad" terrorist.
In the National Action Plan as well, he pointed out that the civilian and military leadership has committed to taking actions against all terror outfits and their supporters, adding it was the need of the hour to take these measures.
"I think, we need to shutdown the safe havens of terrorists, as we've already suffered a lot both in terms of human and financial losses," he added.
