US denies receiving evidence from Pak regarding India's hand in Baloch insurgency

Islamabad, Dec.3 (ANI): The United States has denied receiving any evidence regarding India's alleged involvement in the Baloch insurgency from Pakistan.

Interacting with a select group of news editors here, just after President Barack Obama announced his revamped Afghan strategy, US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson denied commenting on India's influence in Afghanistan, but added that Pakistan has not shared any evidence of Indian involvement in the Tribal Areas or Balochistan with Washington.

"If Pakistan shares any evidence with us, we will look into it," The Daily Times quoted Patterson, as saying.

Patterson also allayed Islamabad's fears that the addition of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan would create more trouble for the country, saying Washington does not foresee the Taliban fleeing Afghanistan and crossing over to Pakistan.

"We don't see any spillover effect of sending more troops to Afghanistan," she said.

Responding to a question, Patterson pointed out that the Obama administration had taken Islamabad on board before taking the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

"We (also) took Pakistan on board much before President Obama's speech ... our secretary of state, CIA director and national security advisor (NSA) have visited Pakistan and met the president, the prime minister and the army chief besides other senior officials, to explain to them the contours of the US policy for Afghanistan and the withdrawal strategy," Patterson said.

The US envoy stressed that the US intelligence has credible information that Al Qaeda were eyeing Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

"We also have intelligence reports that some Al Qaeda groups want their hands on Pakistan's nuclear assets, but we (the US administration) believe and we are also convinced that they are safe," Patterson said.

She tactically refrained from responding to queries regarding an agreement between Washington and Islamabad to carry out drone attacks inside Pakistan, saying both the countries have inked several MoU's.

"There are many agreements and memoranda of understanding ... ask your government," Patterson told the Pakistani editors. (ANI)