New Delhi, January 22
Washington’s plan to supply drone aircraft to Pakistan has upset India though it has not come as a big surprise to New Delhi.
India is of the firm view that the US administration must stop supplying military hardware to Pakistan since it has always in the past been used against India.
Official sources said New Delhi has sensitised successive administrations in Washington about the misuse of military aid extended to Pakistan.
“We have no difficulty with economic aid to Pakistan or the aid to fight terrorism but it must be ensured that this aid is not used against India,” they added.
Reports have suggested that the US proposes to provide Pakistan with a dozen unarmed drone aircraft that will help bolster its military as it takes on Taliban militants.
Details of the drones emerged late yesterday during a visit to Pakistan by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who was asked in an interview with Pakistani television if Washington would supply Islamabad with the unmanned aircraft. “There are some tactical UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that we are considering, yes,” Gates said.
Defence officials in his delegation afterward confirmed funds had been set aside to secure 12 shadow aerial drones for Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the sources asked for reaction to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s statement during talks with Gates that Islamabad could not guarantee that a Mumbai-type terrorist attack would not be repeated, said Pakistan or no country could absolve itself of the responsibility to ensure that its territory was not misused for carrying out terrorist attacks in another country.
“It is the responsibility of the Pakistani state to see that its soil is not used to launch terrorist attacks in India,” they added.
In another related development, Pakistan needs to take effective action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror network operating along its border with India and check the activities of Taliban militants on its Afghan frontier, British High Commissioner to India Richard Staff said here today.
Briefing the media on the upcoming conference on Afghanistan in London on January 28, he said his country also believed that there was more to be done in tackling the problem of Afghan Taliban in the west of Pakistan and also in tackling the LeT networks in the east of the country. The LeT terror networks were linked to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and were a threat to the world community.
He also had a word of appreciation for the Pakistan Government for the ‘significant achievement’ it had made last year in tackling insurgency in the Swat valley and South Waziristan. “Pakistan also needs to address other sources of instability
and violence.”
