By IRNA,
Islamabad: US Army Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey visited Pakistan on Friday to meet with and consult with Pakistani leaders and US Embassy officials, the US Embassy said.
While in Pakistan, he met with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Army Staff, the embassy spokesman said in a statement.
He also met with US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, as well as civilian and military staff at the Embassy.
This is General Dempsey’s first visit to Pakistan since assuming the duties of Chief of Staff on April 11, 2011.
The embassy statement did not give any further details about General Dempsey’s talks with Pakistani army chief.
The visit came just two days after the visit to Pakistan by US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen who alleged that Pakistan’s intelligence agency has ties with an Afghan Taliban-linked Haqqani network, believed to be operating in North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistan army dismissed the accusations as a ‘negative propaganda’ against it.
Sources said Pakistan’s army chief in meeting with General Dempsey renewed call for halt to US drone strikes in the tribal regions.
The US has so far rejected similar calls for stopping drone strikes and on Friday after a strike killed 25 people in North Waziristan tribal region. Correspondents in the region said that five children and three women were among those killed in the Friday’s strike.