US questions Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Taliban
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US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.
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I’m an agnostic at this point as to whether this was a policy change [by Islamabad] or a serendipitous collection of discreet events,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.
He made the comment in connection with Pakistan’s recent arrest of the Afghan Taliban’s operational commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, questioning whether Pakistan has truly turned decisively against the Afghan Taliban, its own creation, in collusion with the US and Saudi Arabia.
He said he was not able to say whether relations between the US and Pakistan had turned a corner after Baradar’s arrest.
“Everyone has asked the same question. How do you know? Have we turned a corner? I’m not prepared to make those judgments, and you’ll have to ask the Pakistanis that,” he said.
Holbrooke refused to discuss whether the US was receiving good intelligence from the joint interrogation of Mullah Baradar, though he claimed that he had “no Problem” with the Lahore High Court’s denial of a US request to transfer the Taliban figure to Afghanistan.
Earlier in February, the Pakistani court asked the government not to hand over the Afghan Taliban leaders detained inside the country to any foreign country including the US or Afghanistan.
The American FBI chief had sought permission from Islamabad for the interrogation of Mullah Baradar.
Earlier, American and Pakistani agents captured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi on February 8, 2010.
Baradar, in his late 40s, was the second in command next to Taliban founder Mullah Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day operations in Afghanistan.
Holbrooke also commented on the ongoing military operation in Afghanistan reiterating that the US and its allies were facing a “daunting” task and that “it was much too early” to predict the outcome
