Taliban’s ‘safe havens’ in Pak’s heart a “doomsday scenario for India, Afghanistan and West
Washinton, Apr. 24 : The so called ‘peace deal’ between the government of Pakistan and the Taliban in the Swat Valley has brought Washington and Islamabad at loggerheads, with the United States considering that the accord would only provide an opportunity to the insurgents to build terror safe havens in Pakistan’s heart.
US diplomats see the peace accord of the Swat Valley, which is located just 60 miles away from Islamabad, as a threat to the region, and to the western world too.
“There’s a doomsday scenario where the real concern is that they establish a foothold in this part of northern Pakistan to launch attacks on Afghanistan, India and the West,” The Telegraph quoted a diplomat, as saying.
With the Pak Taliban announcing earlier this week that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other top Taliban leaders from Afghanistan would be welcomed in the valley as ‘brothers’, as would militants fighting British and American forces in Afghanistan, concerns for America have increased manifold.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, fearing Taliban taking over Pakistan in near future, had also said that Islamabad has no choice left but to challenge the expanding writ of the insurgents.
Clinton also has accused the Government of Pakistan of “abdicating” to the Taliban and other extremist groups by ceding large tracts of territory. She said that the country’s instability is a “mortal threat” to world peace. (ANI)