A new set of leaked State Department cables portray US diplomats' "deep scepticism that Pakistan will ever cooperate fully in fighting the full panoply of extremist groups," as an insurance against India, according to New York Times.
"This is partly because Pakistan sees some of the strongest militant groups as insurance for the inevitable day the United States military withdraws from Afghanistan - and Pakistan wants to exert maximum influence inside Afghanis-tan and against Indian intervention," the US daily said in a report from Islamabad.
The cables also revealed a review of the US's Af-Pak strategy said Pakistan had received more than $16 billion in American aid since 2001, but "there is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance... as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these groups", US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson wrote in September 2009.
The cables, leaked by WikiLeaks, show US diplomats and spies believe the Pakistani army and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to quietly back four militant groups - the Afghan Taliban, its allied Haqqani and Hekmatyar networks on the western Afghan frontier, and LeT on the eastern border with India.
Some ISI officials "continue to maintain ties with a wide array of extremist organisations, in particular the Taliban, LeT and other extremist organisations," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009. Resolving the Kashmir conflict "would dramatically improve the situation", Patterson said. She also underpinned the need for the US to reassess India's role in Afghanistan.
{{/usCountry}}Some ISI officials "continue to maintain ties with a wide array of extremist organisations, in particular the Taliban, LeT and other extremist organisations," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009. Resolving the Kashmir conflict "would dramatically improve the situation", Patterson said. She also underpinned the need for the US to reassess India's role in Afghanistan.
{{/usCountry}}A senior US intelligence official was "unrelentingly gloomy" about Pakistan, the current safe haven for Al Qaeda in the Afghanistan war, during a briefing of NATO representatives.