Pak should not isolate itself while responding to terrorists: DT

Islamabad, Dec 15 (ANI): It is very important for Pakistan not to isolate itself while responding to the challenges produced by terrorists doing mischief abroad from its soil, a leading Islamabad based daily has said.

The world knows that Central Asian rulers are all despots, but it is developing tolerance for them because of their resistance to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the Daily Times has said in its lead editorial.

Among those who prop up these despots is China, which has suffered Uighur terrorist attacks in its western province of Xinjiang from Pakistan's Tribal Areas.

No one is thinking in terms of the movement of Chechen and Uzbek warriors from Central Asia to Pakistan's Tribal Areas. But the world is wary of their potential to create mischief when they strike in Russia and other parts of Central Asia.

This is a situation, which requires Pakistan to co-opt the world. But the action-reaction pattern that has set in may make it even more difficult for Islamabad to do so, the paper said.

Pakistan's "pulling out" of the NATO effort in Afghanistan might lay it bare to a more aggressive NATO-CIA policy of striking deep inside Pakistan's territory with drones and missiles.

Shifting dependence to the Central Asian states and Russia introduces a new "regional" element in the equation with negative results for Pakistan in its future determination of policy towards Afghanistan.

It must be noted that after the 2005 suicide-bomber attacks against President Karimov mounted allegedly from Pakistan's Tribal Areas by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan of Tahir Yuldashev, Tashkent, which had stayed away from Moscow's efforts to bring it into its sphere of influence, was compelled to go into a defence pact with Russia.

Just as Pakistan needed international cooperation to face up to the growing strength of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, events seem to have thrown "other" challenges before it. (ANI)