Washington, Sep 12: Islamabad is harbouring al Qaeda and placating radical domestic groups and the next attack on the US could originate from Pakistan as its politicians try to “out-demagogue one another in denouncing the Americans for killing terrorists,” the Washington Times has said.

The newspaper noted with regret that Islamabad seems less concerned about its territory being used for an attack on the US than about placating radical domestic groups.

“As the US military steps up its operations against these terrorist networks inside Pakistan, that country’s politicians try to out-demagogue one another in denouncing the US for killing terrorists. Seven years after 9/11, Pakistan’s internal decline could have catastrophic consequences for the US.”

The newspaper charged that Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) has “created a new safe haven for terrorist training and indoctrination on Pakistani soil, threatening the sovereignty and freedom” of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, where more than 50,000 foreign troops are fighting to ensure that that Afghanistan does not again become a base for launching attacks against the US.

The security situation in Pakistan is deteriorating to the point where American officials need to “consider the unthinkable - that Pakistan in a worst-case scenario could become a launching pad for another strike against this country”.

According to the Washington Times, Pakistan “aids and abets terror”. The editorial repeats that charge, which Pakistan has denied, that the ISI staged the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Islamabad’s “refusal to confront al Qaeda” has helped create a de facto safe haven for the group and its allies in locations like the Federally Administered Tribal Areas 
(FATA).

A US intelligence official has compared al Qaeda’s operational and organisational advantages in FATA to those it enjoyed in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks.

Al Qaeda, he charged, was training and positioning its operatives to carry out attacks in the West, probably including the US. (ANI)