US authorises ground raids into Pak: Report

Washington, Sept 11:

US President George W Bush has secretly approved orders allowing US forces to conduct ground operations in Pakistan without the government's prior approval, a report said on Wednesday citing senior US officials. A newspaper reported that the July move allowing Special Operations forces to carry out assaults within the borders of a key "war on terror" ally marked a turn for the Bush administration, which has struggled with Islamabad over how to combat al Qaeda and a resurgent Taliban. "The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable," a senior American official told the paper on condition of anonymity. "We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued." According to the newspaper, US officials say they will notify Pakistan when the United States conducts operations on the country's territory, but that they will not ask for permission. The newspaper reported that US officials have been debating for month whether to authorise such forays against Islamic militants in Pakistan, following US intelligence warnings that al Qaeda and other militant groups were consolidating their hold on north-western Pakistan. The report comes a week after a cross-border raid allegedly by US-led coalition troops based in neighbouring Afghanistan the left 15 people dead. Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani on Wednesday strongly criticised the raids and said the country would defend its sovereignty "at all cost." "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan," he said in a statement. He said there was no "agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border," according to the statement issued by the military's media wing. Kayani regretted the civilian deaths in the September 4 raid and said such "reckless actions only help the militants and further fuel the militancy in the area." A recent series of missile strikes targeting rebels in Pakistan has been attributed to US-led coalition forces or Central Intelligence Agency drones based in Afghanistan. There are about 70,000 international forces deployed under NATO and a separate US-led coalition in Afghanistan in an effort to help local forces repel the Islamist rebels. Bureau Report

Your comment(s) on this article

We were once talking of hot-pursuit. Subsequently all was forgotten in the pursuit of friendship with Pakistan. However, Pakistan has neither forgotten nor given up its attempts to fragment India any which way it can and supports Kashmir separatists and all other insurgencies in India. We must destroy Pakistan’s capacity to do this, in whichever way we can. - K.Venugopal - Mumbai

Taking cue from the USA, India must also follow USA and secretly approve Indian Forces to conduct Ground Operations in Pak-Occupied Kashmir to crush Terrorists camps. India must restraint not to step in the PAKistan but it must limit to Pak-Occupied Kashmir only. This will save precious lives of innocent Indians. - Arvind Sharma - Delhi