NEW DELHI: The US needs to have a relationship with both India and Pakistan because of the Pakistani military’s role in countering the threat from Islamic State-Khorasan Province, a top American general has said in remarks that are unlikely to go down well in New Delhi.
The US Central Command chief, Gen Michael Kurilla, described Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in counter-terrorism during a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. His remarks come at a time when India has intensified its efforts to highlight Pakistan’s support for cross-border terrorism in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April.
Indian officials, including external affairs minister S Jaishankar, have insisted that the victims of terrorism and perpetrators of terrorist assaults such as the one at Pahalgam cannot be treated at par. The Indian side has also been rankled by several countries hyphenating India and Pakistan during last month’s military clashes.
During his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Kurilla, who is set to retire this summer, highlighted the role of the Pakistani military and army chief Asim Munir in combating ISIS-Khorasan, another name for IS-KP.
“That’s why we need…to have a relationship with Pakistan and with India. I do not believe it is a binary switch that we can’t have one with Pakistan if we have a relationship with India,” Kurilla said while answering questions from members of the panel.
{{/usCountry}}“That’s why we need…to have a relationship with Pakistan and with India. I do not believe it is a binary switch that we can’t have one with Pakistan if we have a relationship with India,” Kurilla said while answering questions from members of the panel.
{{/usCountry}}“We should look at the merits of the relationship for the positives that it has,” he said.
There was no immediate response to Kurilla’s comments from Indian officials.
The US Central Command, based in Florida, has an area of responsibility that covers 21 countries in West, Central and South Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Hawaii-based US Indo-Pacific Command is responsible for military relations with India.
Kurilla noted that ISIS-K, based in Afghanistan, is one of the most active terrorist groups involved in “external plots globally”, including against the US homeland. The Afghan Taliban have gone after the ISIS-K and pushed many of the group’s fighters into tribal areas on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, he said.
He described Pakistan as “a phenomenal partner in the counter-terrorism world” and said Islamabad was going after the ISIS-Khorasan with “limited intelligence” that the US is providing. He also noted that Pakistan has witnessed some 1,000 terrorist attacks since the start of 2024, which have killed about 700 security personnel and 2,500 civilians.
“Through a phenomenal partnership with Pakistan, they have gone after ISIS-Khorasan, killing dozens of them. Through a relationship we have with them, [and] providing intelligence, they have captured at least five ISIS-Khorasan high-value individuals,” he said.
Kurilla said Pakistan extradited Mohammad Sharifullah alias Jafar, one of the key individuals behind a suicide attack at Kabul airport in August 2021 that killed 13 American military personnel and 160 civilians during the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
“The first person...the [Pakistani] chief of army staff Munir [called] was me and said, ‘I’ve caught him, I’m willing to extradite him back to the US, please tell the secretary of defense and the president,’” he said.
Kurilla also said in a statement to the committee that Pakistan’s value as a partner in countering terrorist threats from Central and South Asia “will only increase as the Taliban continues to face security challenges within its borders”.