Hillary Clinton statement widely condemned in Pakistan
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, May 11, IRNA -- The statement of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in connection with the alleged plot of bomb blast on Times Square in New York by a Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has been widely condemned in Pakistan.
Hillary Clinton said that Pakistan was responsible for the alleged plot of bomb blast.
Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has said that it is a sorrow state of affair that Pakistan as a frontline state in war on terror in the region is itself victim of terrorist activities and suicide bomb blasts in which thousands of people were killed and bore a loss of forty billion dollars to its economy.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the consequences for Pakistan would be very serious if a terror attempt like the failed Times Square bombing were to succeed and was found to have originated in that country.
The top US diplomat said that Washington had already conveyed this message to Islamabad and hoped that Pakistan understood how seriously the United States took such threats.
Clinton’s remarks, however, appear to indicate that she believes Shahzad had links to others and the planning for the attack was done in Pakistan.
Shahzad has reportedly told interrogators that he received terrorist training in North Waziristan.
A Pakistani law maker Salim Saifullah has said that USA is creating hype of this small incident and adopted negative and enemy like attitude towards Pakistan. He said the demand of “DO MORE” is absolutely against our national interest.
“If Faisal who is a US national is involved in so-called Times Square incident, how Pakistan can be blamed for his crime whereas he is a US national”, the Senator said.
He said Faisal holds US nationality and if he was involved in any crime, US itself was responsible.
Salim Saifullah asked the government to summon US Ambassador to Foreign Office and seek explanation for the threatening statements of Hillary Clinton.
Like others in the Pakistani community, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US , Maleeha Lodhi, said she too was surprised by Secretary Clinton’s remarks.
“This statement seems to be at odds with the Obama administration’s mature and calm handling of the situation,” she said.
Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said that Clinton’s remarks in no way indicated any impact on the flow of US economic or military aid for Pakistan.
He said Faisal Shahzad has talked about his travels to Pakistan and the US has discussed this at the appropriate levels with Pakistan and will continue to do so.
But the fear in Pakistan has increased that the US, can achieve anything beyond its borders unless it has indigenous support.
Analysts say that the myth of superpower is broken and with all that firepower the US has caused destruction and bloodshed but could not achieve ground control.
On the other hand, US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that if Pakistan failed to take appropriate actions against the Taliban, the United States will, as he and other American officials firmly blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the attempted attack in New York’s Times Square.
“It’s clear that Faisal Shahzad was working on behalf of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, that’s the TTP. That’s a militant terrorist organisation within Pakistan that is closely allied with Al Qaeda,” he said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan would provide every possible support to United States in the investigations pertaining to Faisal Shehzad, accepting this new controversy has damaged Pak-US relations to some extent.
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