Kabul, Apr 15 (ANI): US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Boucher has said that both the Taliban and Al Qaeda were lately facing a tough time in Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas as they have to fight on two fronts now, i.e. Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He said if more concerted efforts were carried by Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two extremist organizations would feel more squeezed.
"To some extent, the extremists in those areas are now fighting on two fronts. They have to deal with pressures from the Pakistan side and the pressure from the Afghan side. The more we can do that in concert with each other, the more squeezed the al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters in those areas will feel," The News quoted Boucher as saying while addressing a news conference in Kabul.
Boucher claimed that after the formation of a new government in Islamabad, he has witnessed a renewed energy in relations between the two countries. "What I have found in our discussions is a real commitment to work together, to coordinate with each other ... more intensely," he said.
A new government in Pakistan has called for a reassessment of efforts against militancy and it will try to open negotiations with militants, he said and added that the Pakistanis were determined to tackle the problem. "What we're seeing is now, first of all, a lot of Pakistanis unfortunately getting killed but also a lot of determination on the Pakistani side to deal with it," he said.
"We're working very hard with the new Pakistani government to take advantage of the opportunity to build democracy and help work with them against extremism," he said.
Boucher also dismissed Taliban threats of more violence. "The Taliban threats this year of a winter wave seem to have gone the way of last year's spring offensive: it never really happened," he said.
Meanwhile, in Washington US investigating agency Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, Robert S Mueller has said that Al Qaeda has established new sanctuaries in tribal Areas and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.
He said this while addressing a meeting at Chatham House in London last week.
"Al Qaeda is resilient and its network is now diffuse. And it continues to adjust its strategies and tactics. We now confront a three-tiered threat. Al Qaeda has established new sanctuaries in Pakistan which means that it can reconstitute its leadership, recruit new operatives, and regenerate its capability to attack," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.
The middle tier is perhaps the most complex, he said and added: "We are finding small groups who have some ties to an established terrorist organisation, but are largely self-directed."
He called them as "Al Qaeda franchises", who, according to him, were hybrids of homegrown radicals and more sophisticated operatives.
He said that July 7 London bombers were an example of this middle layer. Two of them trained at camps in Pakistan, but they came back to Britain and lived there while they plotted their attacks. (ANI)
