Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Islamabad has not honoured its promise to eliminate Lashkar-e-Toiba and felt that Washington can no longer “wink and nod” on the presence of terrorist groups in Pakistan.
“They promised (after the attack on Indian Parliament in 2001). And they went about saying, see they (terrorists) are not there any more,” Powell disclosed, saying that the group, suspected to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage, “changed names and changed form”.
Powell, who was the Chairman Chief of Staff of the US Forces, said US could no longer “wink and nod” on the presence of terrorist groups in Pakistan and would have to make it clear to Islamabad that “they have to take them on”.
“They (Pakistan) have to take them on. And if they don’t, then you will have these incidents over time, and the situation will remain unstable,” he said.
“Just the other day, Pakistan government arrested a number of people and said they had raided seven camps,” Powell said. “And the question that immediately occurred to me was why are there seven camps?”
Pakistanis have to make a strategic choice, both a political choice, a military choice and a choice on the part of Inter-Services security apparatus that “we can no longer pay the price of having this kind of terrorist organisation inside Pakistan,” Powell said in an interview to CNN.
For the first time, Powell, who was the Secretary of State when the Indian Parliament was attacked, admitted that previous crackdowns on organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had got away with just “cosmetic” show.
“But I would say to my Pakistani friends, don’t let it happen again,” Powell said.
