WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, arrived in Pakistan on an unannounced visit yesterday to discuss operations under way on the Afghanistan frontier with Pakistan’s leaders, the Pentagon said.
“He will meet with Prime Minister (Yousaf Raza) Gilani and Gen. (Ashfaq) Kayani to discuss ongoing operations in the border region with Afghanistan,” the office of the Joint Chiefs told AFP, without elaborating.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan demanded an immediate end to incursions by US forces into its territory as the country’s jets and helicopter gunships pounded insurgent positions in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, killing 14 rebels and two civilians. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country would be safeguarded at all costs,” Gilani said in a meeting with British Justice Secretary Jack Straw in Islamabad.
The statement came one day after Pakistani officials said US forces tried to cross into Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan but were forced to turn back to Afghanistan after the country’s security forces and armed tribesmen fired warning shots.
It was the latest military incursion the United States was accused of as Washington expressed concerns over Pakistan’s inability to control Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters who attack international troops in Afghanistan from its lawless tribal region.
Straw agreed with Gilani that foreign incursions into Pakistan’s territory would be “counterproductive” but said he hoped the country would continue providing passage to NATO supplies, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, also held talks in London yesterday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, focusing on terrorism and the recent tension between Washington and Islamabad over apparent unilateral US cross-border operations.
Earlier, Gilani insisted the Pakistan Armed Forces were fully capable of handling any situation within their territory, where security forces are battling against rebels.
On the same day, thousands of troops backed by tanks and artillery pushed into the district of Bajaur, particularly in the Rashakai, Loi Sam and Tang Khata strongholds of Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters from Central Asia. Jet planes and gunships helicopters also targeted militants’ positions.
Late last evening, a suicide bomber attacked at a camp of security forces killing several people and injuring many in Swat Valley region. Initial reports suggest the bomber struck attacked at a field camp at Tutatanobandi in Kabal Tehsil.
Authorities clamped dusk-to-dawn curfew in some parts of Swat Valley for an indefinite period after the army pounded main strongholds of Taleban in Kabal and Koza Bandai region with artillery and Cobra gunships.
— With input from Azhar Masood
