United States has warned its citizens about moving around Peshawar but considers Pakistan's response to siege of Lal Mosque in Islamabad its internal matter. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the US embassy in Islamabad had issued a message asking American citizens to limit their movements in Peshawar area for several days.
This, he said, had been done due to non-specific public announcements by militants in Bajaur tribal agency that they plan to unleash attacks on Pakistani police and army institutions in retaliation for recent events at Lal Mosque complex. Asked if US played any role in ending the stand-off or if Islamabad had asked for any help, he said, "Not that I know of. I don't - I doubt it".
McCormack said, "It's not really an accurate measure. I mean, you know contacts with them, asking them what happens to be going on, I'm sure occurred, just to get a status update, so people could report back. "But, I am not aware of any sort of operational linkages and certainly, we are not in business of telling Pakistani government when they should or should not end negotiations," he added.
"Of course, everybody wants to see these kinds of situations resolved peacefully. It's everybody's optimal solution. But it is fundamentally a matter for the government to decide when negotiations end and when action needs to take place to bring some sort of resolution to the situation."
McCormack said, "it was a situation where they had exercised any number of opportunities for these individuals to resolve peacefully, yet they persisted and they persisted to the point of using children as human shields. "If there's anything finally to say about it, any sort of lessons learned, if any, then certainly, we'll offer those if we think it's appropriate."