Pakistan needs to go after all aspects of terror: US NSA

The US today said existence of terror groups in Pakistan was against the interest of the region and that country would have to take the "tough" decision of going after such groups without making any discrimination.

The US said on Thursday that existence of terror groups in Pakistan was against the interest of the region and that country would have to take the "tough" decision of going after such groups without making any discrimination.

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"In our bilateral relationship with Pakistan, we have expressed strong concerns over the existence, within the borders of Pakistan, of terrorist organisations that have goals to destabilise and attack our way of life, your way of life, to prevent strategic goals from being achieved in Afghanistan," US National Security Adviser James Jones said.

He viewed the existence of terror outfits in Pakistan as being in "violent conflict" with the way the US sees the world collectively and bilaterally in the 21st century.

"It is contrary to their (Pakistan's) own interests, for the future and the stablity of the region to continue to tolerate the existence of insurgents within their borders," he told CNN-IBN.

He said if Pakistan wants to correct that and show that it wants the "same thing we want", it will have to "make the tough decision to go after" the terrorist organisations and "state concretely and publicly that this is a matter of policy that this cannot be tolerated."

Asked whether action against Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, would be a test case for Pakistan, Jones said the US expected Islamabad to deal with all aspects of terror.

"We want to see a more comprehensive programme that addresses all aspects of terror and all these groups, we are finding out are linked," he said.

"They are not necessarily targetting one nation or the other. They are terrorist organisations that have in mind to disrupt India, to disrupt our way of life and are actively planning to do that," said Jones who was here on a two-day visit.

On whether the US has been equally firm in pressing Pakistan to deal with terror targetted against India, he said, "We do not subscribe to the idea that a-la-carte terrorism (which allows one to choose) is a viable strategy".

He emphasised that terrorist organisations are "anathema for future peace and prosperity, whether it is in this region, whether it is in our country, whether it is in Europe, whether it is in Africa or the Middle East."

Asked whether Indian investigators will get more access to Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley, he said the state of India-US ties was such that the US was willing to cooperate on anything that New Delhi required to better understand threats to it from terror outfits.

Jones said the access Indian investigators got to Headley reflected growing good relations between the two countries. "We have to have more cooperation on intelligence matters so that we can be successful in defeating terror," he said.