Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: When US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Islamabad last week, he tried to convince top Pakistani civilian and military leadership that his country’s quest for India’s role in Afghanistan was limited to economic activities only, an official who was part of the meeting told Daily Times.

The assurance came amid growing concerns in Pakistan about India’s growing involvement in Afghanistan. Even the Foreign Office insisted last week that “it has been proven that India is involved in perpetrating terrorism and terror financing in Pakistan and also nurturing TTP, JuA and their affiliates in Afghanistan against Pakistan.” “You are aware of the statements issued from India that have established without doubt Indian involvement in state-terrorism in Pakistan, its use of Afghan soil and Afghan terrorist elements to launch terrorism in Pakistan,” Nafees Zakaria had said on Oct 27.

Afghan officials, however, disagree with Pakistan’s notion about India’s role. President Ashraf Ghani in his recent remarks asked Pakistan to provide ‘evidence’ of Indian involvement in anti-Pakistan activities in Afghanistan. Afghan envoy in Islamabad Omar Zakhilwal in a series of interviews has also rejected Pakistan stance as an ‘insult to Afghanistan’s sovereignty’. The official told Daily Times that Pakistani side conveyed serious concerns on the US policy of pressing for India’s major role in Afghanistan. “On Pakistan’s concern about Indian role in Afghanistan, Tillerson said that is only economic,” the official said.

“We demanded the US cut India’s role in Afghanistan. We believe the US move to strengthen Indian strategic role in Afghanistan aims at countering China. US-India -Afghanistan nexus is aimed at countering China,” he added.

The official said Pakistani leaders expressed concerns at Trump administration’s insistence on military solution to the Afghan problem by targeting Taliban leaders, which could increase violence in the war-shattered country and kill chances of reconciliation with the Taliban.

“We insisted that it will be unrealistic to crush the Taliban leaders. How is it possible to kill them and expect them to come to the table at the same time,” he said. Pakistani officials also conveyed their serious concerns to Tillerson about the US statement against multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. “We raised objections at US statement and clearly told him (Tillerson) that such statements expose US designs.”

When asked about Tillerson’s demands from Pakistan, the official said they had three messages for Pakistan. They wanted Pakistan must put pressure on Taliban to bring them to the negotiation table, the official said, adding the US also asked Pakistan to take action against them if they refuse to join the peace process.

The official said the US reiterated its call for taking action against what it calls sanctuaries of armed groups on Pakistani soil. “But, we disputed the their assertion of safe havens and told them that Pakistan has already cleared North Waziristan. We explained to them that Pakistan is implementing border management system to stop cross-border movement.” The official said that the US also called for engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “They assured us Washington was ready to cooperate with any mechanism including the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) consisting Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Russia to find out a solution to the Afghan conflict.”

Published in Daily Times, October 30^th 2017.