Thaindian News

Islamabad, Jan 21 (DPA) US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan Thursday for talks likely to focus on the new US strategy in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Gates, who flew in from India, began his two-day unannounced trip with a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Ahmed Mukhtar in Islamabad, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Defence Ministry said.

The American top defence official is expected to press Pakistan into broadening its military operations in the tribal areas to rout Islamist rebels linked to the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.

“Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good,” Gates said in an opinion piece published in The News daily.

However, he acknowledged Islamabad’s fear that Washington’s tactics in Afghanistan could provoke a backlash in Pakistan.

Gates is scheduled to hold meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

Gates’s itinerary for his first visit to Pakistan as US President Barack Obama’s defence secretary included a series of interviews with Pakistani journalists.

Officials said journalists are likely to ask about issues such as the much-condemned US drone strikes in the tribal belt, stricter security checks for Pakistanis at US airports and bilateral relations.

Gates’ visit comes ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan scheduled for London Jan 28.

He arrived in Islamabad after a two-day visit to India, where he discussed the Taliban threat to regional stability.

In New Delhi, Gates had warned that an Al Qaeda-led terrorist syndicate in Afghanistan and Pakistan were seeking to destabilise the whole of South Asia, and could even provoke a war between Pakistan and India.

The US secretary praised India’s “statesmanship” after the Mumbai attacks allegedly by Pakistan-based Islamist militants. But he expressed concern about Indian patience in the face of any further such assaults.

At least 166 people were killed in the November 2008 massacre, which triggered a freeze in the four-year peace talks between the two nuclear-armed nations.