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‘Army fears disintegration if war ordered on Taliban’

* US official says Pakistani government and army are still not coming to grips with crisis

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Pakistan Army officers are afraid that if they ask the rank and file to fire on the Taliban too much, the whole army might disintegrate, Bruce Riedel, a senior Obama administration official, has said.

The Obama administration is considering expediting aid to Pakistan to block militants threatening a cluster of strategic installations, The Washington Times has reported.

Grip: Bruce Riedel, who chaired the Obama administration’s recent review of policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said the Pakistani government and army are still not coming to grips with the crisis. “Some officials are in denial,” he said.

Riedel expressed concern, however, about whether the Pakistani army would be willing to kill large numbers of the Taliban. Army’s spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas has said the operation against around 500 Taliban could take a week.

Taliban leaders, he said, had faked a withdrawal from Buner to impress the media. The peace deal with the government in the Swat valley was also a trick, he said.

The US has proposed giving Pakistan $1 billion in emergency aid and $1.5 billion a year in economic aid annually for five years.

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