US helping Pak in rooting out terrorism: Rice

Washington, Jan 17: The outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the US is lending all help to Pakistan to address the root cause of extremism prevalent in the country.

"We're working with the Pakistanis, both to provide opportunities so people don't turn to extremism, and to do what you can to eliminate the extremist threat," The Daily Times quoted Rice, as saying.

"They (Pakistanis) don't always have the means, and we're trying to help them with the means, but it's a tough fight," she added.

Rice however, said that it is not easy for Pakistan to root out the terrorism completely because of the complexity and toughness of the challenge along the western border.

"That's (Pak-Afghan border) one of the most ungoverned, longest ungoverned regions in the world. And it's tough terrain. Fly over it and see what it looks like, and you'll know why it's not easy," she said.

Pointing towards the historical reason behind the current volatile situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Rice said that during the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan became a transit point for the fighters and foreign fighters going in to fight the Soviets.

"After the war, a lot of them didn't go home, and that's given Pakistan a devastating extremist problem," She added.

ANI