By DPA,
Islamabad: The Pakistani military said Thursday that it was unlikely the country would buckle under US pressure to expand its offensive against Taliban militants in its north-western tribal region.
The statement came during the visit of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who arrived in Pakistan from New Delhi for talks on the new US strategy in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters that Pakistan would need six months to one year to launch a fresh military offensive since the country still needed to “stabilise existing gains” from its earlier assaults against Islamist insurgents.
Pakistan troops launched a major offensive in the country’s restive South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border against Taliban groups who are blamed for killing thousands of civilians and security personnel in Pakistan.
Taliban Islamic extremists have retaliated against the assault with a brutal campaign of suicide bombings that have killed more than 600 people over the last two and half months.
But Washington is pressing Islamabad to expand the military action to neighbouring North Waziristan against Taliban groups who mainly target the NATO-led international troops in Afghanistan.
The US security officials believe Pakistan’s expansion of war against terrorism would be vital for its success in Afghanistan as it sends an additional 30,000 troops, reportedly increasing CIA agents from 20 to 25 percent and calling in 50,000 extra security contractors.
Gates pressed the point in a separate meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and his Pakistani counterpart Ahmed Mukhtar, said an official privy to the talks.
“Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good,” Gates said in an opinion piece published in The News daily.
However, he acknowledged Islamabad’s fear that Washington’s tactics in Afghanistan could provoke a backlash in Pakistan.
Gates’ visit comes ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan scheduled for January 28 in London.
He arrived in Islamabad after a two-day visit to India, where he discussed the Taliban threat to regional stability.