NEWS FROM PAKISTAN

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:09:31 +0100

There is no evidence that India is supporting violence in Pakistan, US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Friday.

“If the Indians were supporting those miscreants in Pakistan that would be extraordinarily bad, really dangerous, but they are not doing so. There is no evidence that Indians are support miscreants in western parts of Pakistan or in Balochistan,” he said in an interview with a private TV channel.

He said India was the second largest country in the world and one of the most important. “If we are interested in helping Pakistan, we will have to talk to its neighbours, which include China, India and Afghanistan,” he added.

He said India had given about $1 billion assistance to Afghanistan, and it should not be a cause of concern for Pakistan. “Pakistan does not need to worry about India in Afghanistan, but it has to be worried about miscreants and militants in its western parts,” he added.

To question about the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, he said his job was only related to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan affects: About the use of the term “Af-Pak”, Holbrooke said it emphasised that what happened in Afghanistan was affected by what happened in Pakistan.

The US special envoy denied there were tensions between Pakistan and the US, saying the US wanted to help Pakistan fight the common enemies.

“Pakistan, the US, Afghanistan and India have a common goal of defeating the militants, who were trying to destroy democracy in Pakistan,” he said, adding that US President Barack Obama was committed to supporting Pakistan. “The Obama government has asked the Congress for a big support for Pakistan, and I myself went around the world raising money for Pakistan and had a very successful conference in Tokyo that raised $5 billion for Pakistan,” he added.

He denied the US drone attacks were killing innocent people and proving counter productive. Asked if there was a secret agreement between Pakistan and the US for drone attacks, he said the previous US administration could answer the question.

He denied the US wanted to carry out drone attacks in Quetta.

He rebuffed the news that the ISI chief had refused to meet him during his recent visit to Pakistan. He said General Pasha and army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani were great military leaders.

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NEWS FROM PAKISTAN