Pakistanis think India is a threat: Mullen

I / Washington July 8, 2009, 11:40 IST

Despite US efforts to make Islamabad shed its traditional conception of New Delhi, the Pakistani people still believes that India is a threat to them, a top US army official has said.

"We can argue about whether or not India is a threat to them — I can assure you that the Pakistani people think India is a threat," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his address to US-based think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That is his (Pak Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's) responsibility to address that. So he's got that front on the East and he's also moving forces to the West," Mullen said in response to a question.

US has been asking Pakistan to focus on the war against the Taliban, contending that an internal insurgency not India, was the real threat to its existence. President Asif Ali Zardari has said more than once that he considered the Taliban militancy as Pakistan's prime threat.

Commenting on Pakistan's military action against Taliban in the Swat valley and adjoining areas, Mullen said this time there was commitment on the part of the military and the establishment in Pakistan to "hold and clear out insurgents".

"I think what's different this time in Swat as opposed to last time is the commitment to hold not just to clear out the insurgents," he said.

"... And as I said earlier sometimes this doesn't happen at a pace that we'd like, but it's their country and they get to pick that pace," Mullen said.

He said Pakistan's leadership and military understands they have a very serious internal threat to their country and "I know the chief of staff of Army General Kayani, is committed to this."

Mullen said, in one of his recent visits to Pakistan he was taken to two training centres where the Army is being trained in counter-insurgency operations.

"I watched two of his companies go through this and he's (Kayani) got it now throughout his force. He's got rotation plans and... He's pushed in terms of his overall military capacity as well — he's got two fronts," Mullen said.

Mullen said Pakistan needed enabling capabilities, "whether it's helicopters or night vision capability" to fight the Taliban.