'US govt told to ignore reports of rights abuses by Pak army'

The US government was advised to keep reports of human rights violations by the Pakistani army under wraps by its then envoy to the country Anne Patterson, who also suggested that the focus should be on assistance to Islamabad which was a close ally on the war against terrorism.

This was disclosed by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, which released a secret US cable from the American embassy in Islamabad that was signed off by Patterson.

"A growing body of evidence is lending credence to allegations of human rights abuses by Pakistan security forces during domestic operations against terrorists in Malakand Division and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas," said the cable, much before reports of such abuses appeared on YouTube and other websites.

The cable dated September 7, 2009 and labelled as Secret/Nonforn (Non-foreign) was part of over 2,50,000 secret US documents which WikiLeaks claims to have in its possession.

The US, which has charged the WikiLeaks with indulging in a criminal act by stealing and releasing these cables, has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of these documents.

Taking serious note of human rights violations by the Pakistani Army, Patterson, however, advised Washington to avoid comment on these incidents to the extent possible and that efforts should remain focused on dialogue and the assistance strategy to Pakistan.

"While it is oftentimes difficult to attribute with accuracy any responsibility for such abuses, reporting from a variety of sources suggests that Frontier Corps and regular Pakistan Army units involved in direct combat with terrorists....," the US cable said.

"The crux of the problem appears to centre on the treatment of terrorists detained in battlefield operations and focused on the extra-judicial killing of some detainees. The detainees involved were in the custody of Frontier Corps or Pakistan Army units," it said.

The allegations of extra-judicial killings generally do not extend to what are locally referred to as 'the disappeared' -- "high-value terrorist suspects and domestic insurgents who are being held incommunicado by Pakistani intelligence agencies including the Inter-Services Intelligence Division (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) in their facilities," the cable said.