Pakistan has said only its forces will take action against any terrorist elements on its side of the Afghan border with its top diplomat in Washington defending the new anti-terrorism approach in tribal areas as being different from previous attempts.
"Pakistani preference remains to not have outside forces' action on the Pakistan side of the border," Ambassador Husain Haqqani told editors and reporters at The Washington Post, according to a story published Wednesday.
The envoy dispelled the impression about the government having reached agreement with militants and stated any agreement the government reaches with tribesmen will be different from earlier agreements.
"There will be no agreement similar to agreements of the past," he stressed, adding that the new policy aims at ensuring that there would be no attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Under the strategy, the militants will also have to pledge that they would not allow any safe haven or safe passage for any group that wants to plan attacks against anybody. Fighters will also have to promise to decommission large weapons and account for smaller arms, the envoy said.
The envoy predicted that key players in the tribal areas would eventually comply with the government's demands. "There will be people other than those who belong to hard-core groups that would be willing to agree to these conditions, and those are the reconcilable people that we would like on board," Haqqani said.
Comments
Comments are closed.