In remarks New Delhi will welcome, visiting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Monday that Pakistan had not done as much to fight terrorism as the United States and India would like it to do.
Speaking at an interactive session at La Martiniere School for Girls in Kolkata Monday morning, Ms Clinton referred to the $10 million bounty the US had already announced for 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, and said: “Pakistan has lost far more people (to terror) than India and the US... It is in their interest that Pakistan should deal with the problem of terrorism.”
Ms Clinton said the US believed Al Qaeda’s new chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Pakistan. “We want to disable Al Qaeda. We have made lots of progress. Many of their leaders are on the run. Some are in Pakistan. We want to go after them.”
Terrorism figured in Ms Clinton’s discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Monday evening, when the current state of US-Pakistani relations also figured.
The whole gamut of bilateral issues, including terror, defence and civil nuclear cooperation, were discussed at the Singh-Clinton meeting, the sources said, adding that it was a “very good and cordial meeting” that went far beyond the time allotted for it. Ms Clinton also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday evening.
Unsurprisingly, Ms Clinton drew the PM’s attention to the need for all countries to act against Iran. She stressed the need for India to reduce oil imports from Iran following the US-led economic sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear programme.