Pakistan needs to do more to root out terrorists: US  

WASHINGTON: The United States of America has said that it had conveyed to Pakistan that they need to pursue actively terrorist organizations that are using their soil, their territory to find refuge.

In a media briefing, Mark Toner, Deputy Spokesman for the US State Department, said, “We have conveyed to the Pakistani government and authorities before that they need to pursue actively terrorist organizations that are using their soil, their territory to find refuge.”

Toner also said, “We’ve also said before that Pakistan is a country that unfortunately knows the effects of terrorism, the tragedy of terrorism. It’s suffered multiple terrorist attacks, mass casualty terrorist attacks, so it understands the stakes here.”

The spokesman went on to say that “US has been very clear-eyed and very clear in interaction with Pakistan where we’ve believed that they need to do more to root out terrorists, who find safe haven on some of their territory.”

Over alleged killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour, the spokesman said a major threat to US military on the ground in Afghanistan has been removed from the battlefield.

To a question, he said, “US do consider the Haqqani Network to be an integral part of Taliban operations and among its most deadly elements. We’re not going to comment on any changes in the Taliban’s leadership structure, except to say that we’ve long called on the Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, to join a reconciliation process, and we’ve said this many times.”

Answering another question, Toner said; “we’ve consistently expressed our concern to the highest levels of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups, and that includes the Haqqani Network.”

US believes that an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process is the way ultimately to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan, he said.