Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Pakistan on Monday to discuss with officials of the key ally in the antiterrorism fight how to step up the battle against extremists.
Kerry, who arrived after a visit to Pakistan’s chief rival India, was to meet Monday night with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and remain overnight for more meetings on Tuesday, including the annual strategic dialogue between U.S. and Pakistani officials
The visit comes as Islamabad has stepped up its campaign against Islamist militants in the wake of a Taliban attack Dec. 16 on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 100 children. Kerry plans to travel to the school during his visit, AFP reported, quoting a Pakistani official.
Cooperation against militants already was improving before the attack, but State Department officials traveling with Kerry told reporters he would press Pakistan to do more to thwart not just the Taliban, but other Islamist extremist groups such as the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba — both of which Washington has accused Islamabad of supporting.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed countries have been complicated by the fact that Islamabad has been playing a double game for years, simultaneously supporting extremists and fighting them, depending on where its interests lay at the time. Support from safe havens in Pakistan — and from elements inside the Pakistani government such as the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency — has kept the Taliban in the fight in Afghanistan since U.S. troops ejected them from power in 2001.
Ties reached their low point after U.S. Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a May 2, 2011, raid in Abbottabad, a military garrison town just 35 miles from Islamabad. In the aftermath of the raid, it was revealed that bin Laden had been hiding there for years.
