WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department Thursday absolved Pakistan of all charges of supporting terrorism and praised the country as "one of America's most important partners" in the battle against Islamist extremists.
The report on Pakistan, released with the "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report for 2003, does not have a single negative observation and acknowledges the difficulties the country faces in fighting militants.
"Pakistan continues to be one of the United States' most important partners in the global coalition against terrorism. President Pervez Musharraf has himself been the target of terrorist violence, narrowly escaping two assassination attempts in late 2003," it points out.
Pakistan joined the U.S. efforts to fight terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, when it dumped its former Taliban allies and provided bases to U.S. forces for operations in neighboring Afghanistan.
Although both the countries have maintained close ties since then, in the past, U.S. officials and media reports have often blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to fight militants. The most prominent critic of Pakistani policies in the Bush administration is Washington's envoy to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has publicly accused Pakistan of allowing Taliban and al-Qaida extremists to operate from its territory.
"Al-Qaida, Hizbe Islami and Taliban elements are in Pakistan and are crossing from Pakistan to attack our forces, attack Afghan forces and NGOs," he said while talking to a group of Pakistani journalists in Kabul earlier this month.
"For us, (were) Pakistan to become a sanctuary for these people to plan and to get trained and come back with weapons to attack, (it) will not be good," he said.
Al-Qaida elements, he said, were hiding in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal zone where more than 100 people were killed in a military operation last month, including 43 Pakistani soldiers.
Supporters of Hizbe Islami, a group headed by a former Afghan prime minister, and now an anti-U.S. warlord, Gulbadin Hekmatyar, are also operating in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The State Department report, however, ignores Khalilzad's claim and notes that Pakistan is conducting operations in the tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghan border, "capturing and killing a number of terrorist operatives."
The United States, the report says, is assisting Pakistan's efforts to establish a government presence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and eliminate terrorist safe havens.
The State Department also acknowledges the help the United States has received from Pakistan in the fight against militants. "Pakistan's military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies are cooperating closely with the United States and other nations to identify, interdict and eliminate terrorism both within Pakistan and abroad."
The report says that Pakistan has apprehended "hundreds of suspected operatives" of militant groups and handed them over to the United States. Among those captured in 2003 were Khalid Shaykh Muhammad -- allegedly the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks -- and Walid Bin Attash -- a prime suspect in the attack on the USS Cole in October 2002.
The report points out that when several militant and sectarian groups that had been banned in 2002 began operating under new aliases, the Pakistani government banned them as well.
"Pursuant to its obligations under (relevant) U.N. Security Council resolutions, Pakistan continues to work with the U.N. Sanctions Committee to freeze the assets of individuals and groups identified as terrorist entities linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban," the report says.
Pakistan also has signed 11 of the 12 international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism and is a party to 10, the report adds.
The State Department notes that Pakistani courts continue to respond to both international and domestic cases of terrorism.
"In April 2003, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi convicted four defendants charged with organizing the bombing of the U.S. Consulate in June 2002 in Karachi and, in June 2003, convicted three men charged with the bombing in May 2002 that killed 11 French naval technicians," the report says.
"In November 2003, the same court handed down death sentences for three members of the banned extremist groups Lashkar-i-Jhangvi for planning and committing sectarian murders."
Reviewing Pakistan's cooperation in the war against terror, the report observes: "The U.S.-Pakistan joint counter-terrorism efforts have been extensive. They include cooperative efforts in border security and criminal investigations as well as several long-term training projects."
In 2002, the United States and Pakistan established a working group on counter-terrorism and law enforcement cooperation. The meetings provide a forum for discussing ongoing U.S.-Pakistani efforts and a means for improving capabilities and cooperation.
"Pakistan provides significant assistance in the investigation of international terrorism, acting on leads provided to its counter-terrorism and law enforcement agencies by the United States and other nations," the report concludes.
