Need to keep heat on Pak to take stiff action against LeT, Qaeda: Kerry

Washington, Dec.4 (ANI): US President Barack Obama's key advisor on foreign policy, John Kerry, has said that there is a need to keep on pressing Pakistan to take action against various banned terror organisations based on its soil, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Al-Qaeda, and the Haqqani network.

Kerry highlighted that action against these terror organisations, which he believed were part of the Quetta Shura (Taliban's Quetta based council), would have a major impact in the Afghan operation.

"The key here, however, is strengthening the government in Pakistan and refocusing on what they're going to do in the course of next year. There is a need to keep the heat on the various entities in Pakistan - Lashkar-e-Taiba; the Haqqani network; al-Qaeda; the Quetta Shura, which has a major impact on what happens in Afghanistan," Kerry told PBS television.

"The pressure has to be kept on all of those entities. And if we do, that will alleviate significantly the difficulties in Afghanistan itself," he added.

Backing President Obama's views regarding Pakistan being the 'epicentre of terrorism', he said that as long as Al-Qaeda and its top operatives, including Osama bin Laden and second in command Aimen al-Zawahiri are believed to be there, it hard to allay concerns regarding the country falling into the extremists hands.

"I hate to use this term, but in a sense the (region is) spiritual centre, the symbolic centre of al-Qaeda, it strengthens their ability to do things in Somalia, Yemen, Germany, Great Britain, America, elsewhere," said Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations. (ANI)