'Pak supporting terror groups that target US troops in Afghan'

Washington, Jun 29: A top US Congressman has opposed the decision of the House of Representatives to increase American aid to Pakistan from USD 700 million to USD 900 million alleging that Pakistan continues to support terror groups that target US troops in Afghanistan.

"Pakistan cannot be trusted. It has played us now for a total of USD 33 billion of our money since 2001," Republican Congressman Ted Poe, chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Trade of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote yesterday in an op-ed in US News.

Poe's move to retain the US aid to Pakistan to USD 700 million for the fiscal 2017 as for 2016 was voted down by the House of Representatives. Poe said he is disappointed by House's decision.

"For 15 years we have been asking Pakistan to go after terrorists within its own borders and for 15 years not only has Pakistan not done so in any significant way, but it has actually supported those very terrorists who kill our service men and women in Afghanistan. It is time to call it like it is," he said.

"We do not need to give Pakistan a raise to betray us. They will do it for free. And that's just the way it is," Poe said. The House of Representatives recently gave Pakistan a USD 200 million raise.

In all, it was a USD 900 million payday for a country that to this day is supporting terrorist groups that kill US service men and women in Afghanistan, he said.

"It is well known by now that Pakistan gave safe harbor to Osama bin Laden. Before he met his maker in one of the greatest US military raids ever conducted, bin Laden was living in a big house in a bustling military town in Pakistan," he added.

"Less known is that after that raid our CIA station chief in Pakistan was poisoned: Both he and the CIA suspect he was poisoned by Pakistan's version of the CIA called the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency or 'ISI'," Poe wrote. "The ISI is infamous for its support for terrorists.

In February 2012, a NATO report confirmed that it was supporting the Taliban and other terrorist groups with resources, sanctuary and training," Poe said.

"A year before the NATO report, in 2011, Adm Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before Congress that "the Haqqani Network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. No terrorist organization is responsible for more American deaths than the Haqqani Network," he alleged.

PTI