US asks Pak to 'absolutely stop' cross-border terrorism in India

Washington, May 15 (ANI): The Obama administration has alerted the Pakistan Government to "absolutely stop" cross border terrorism in India, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher has said.

"It is important for Pakistan to stop the groups that carry out terrorism in India, absolutely," The Dawn quoted Boucher, as saying.

Addressing a press briefing in Washington, he added: "Threat to Pakistan from terrorism comes not just from groups fighting in Afghanistan and the groups that are up in the tribal areas. The groups that attack India present a danger to Pakistan as well."

Boucher, however, said the Washington was not in favor of linking restrictions with the non-military emergency aid to Pakistan.

"We do not want restrictions to make it impossible to achieve the goals that we all share," Boucher told the South Asian journalists on Thursday.

The US House of Representatives recently called for such a condition for tripling the non-military aid to Pakistan.

The House version of the aid bill requires Pakistan to prevent cross-border attacks by Kashmiri militant groups to qualify for US assistance.

According to the US officials, the Obama administration raised this issue in last week's trilateral summit involving the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The talks led to a commitment by both Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent cross-border militant activities against each other and against other South Asian neighbours.

Boucher, who is about to be replaced by another career diplomat Robert Blake, said the US will support Pakistan's fight against terrorism, and assist rehabilitation of internal refugees of Swat.

He said: "We are going to fight together, we are going to work to clear the Swat valley of the militants and we are going to go forward with necessary assistance to people, to take care of the people displaced by the fighting and to start the rebuilding process." (ANI)