The U.S. is pushing Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack to justice and put an end to the nexus between the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror groups, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.
The relationship between the ISI and some terror groups remained a concern for the U.S., though there has been a remarkable improvement in cooperation from the ISI in the past nine months, Ms. Clinton told reporters travelling with her. “… We are constantly assessing that [the relationship between the ISI and terrorist outfits] and because it remains a concern to us,” she said.
Ms. Clinton said the U.S. kept raising several issues with Pakistan, with the Mumbai trial prominent among them. “We are clearly pushing for the trial of the Mumbai attackers and planners to go forward.”
“We are very much focused on them, because we see them as a threat to Pakistan, we see them as a threat to India, we see them as a threat to stability in the region. We don’t think it’s good for anybody,” she said.
Ms. Clinton said “No,” when asked whether she was convinced that there was no more collaboration between the military and the ISI in assisting certain terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba. “No, but I’m not unconvinced.” However, she said the level of cooperation from the Pakistani military and intelligence services “has increased geometrically in the last nine months.”
She said the two countries had made progress in creating a base of trust but “nine months is not a lot of time to turn around a relationship that has a lot of scars to it.” “... But, I think it is fair to say we have really increased the level of conversation and sharing of information over the last nine months that is unprecedented, at least since we were in there working with them to create these organisations that are now the source of a lot of our problems.”
