India not a "threat" to Pakistan: Zardari

Lalit K Jha

Washington, May 10 (PTI) In a rare admission by a
Pakistani leader, President Asif Ali Zardari has said India is
not a "threat" to his country, hours after he confirmed that
Islamabad had moved some of its forces from its eastern border
to eliminate Taliban in its tribal belt.

"Well, I am already on record. I have never considered
India a threat," Zardari said in an interview on the PBS news
channel's popular show "Newshour With Jim Lehrer" Saturday.

This is the first time a top Pakistani leader has
publicly said that India is not a threat to the country, a
fact which Obama Administration has been trying to convince
Zardari and the Pakistan Army for quite some time now.

"I have always considered India a neighbour, which we
want to improve our relationship with. We have had some cold
times and we have had some hard times with them. We have gone
to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve
relationships," Zardari said while responding to a question
about "which being the greatest threat to Pakistan? India, or
the militants."

Last month, at a White House press conference held on the
occasion of his 100 days in office, Obama had said that
confronted with the Taliban offensive, Pakistan is beginning
to recognise that viewing India as a "mortal threat" is
misguided and that its biggest threat came internally.

It is believed that both Obama and US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in their meetings with Zardari here this week
impressed upon him that Pakistan should no longer consider
India as a primary threat and rather concentrate its energies
on fighting terrorism inside the country.

However, there has been no official word from the Obama
Administration in this regard so far after the meetings.

While responding the question about moving troops from
Indian border to the tribal areas of Pakistan to fight the war
against terror, Zardari said: "Pakistan has already done so."

In an interview to the CNN on Friday, Zardari had said
Pakistan has already moved troops from the Indian border and
would do more based on the requirement.
"The fact is that we have moved more troops today and
yesterday and the day before. We moved them according to the
requirement.

"We already have 125,000 personnel there. So when we need
to replace them, we need to improve upon their strength, we do
that," Zardari said in response to a question.

The US has been pressing Pakistan to step up its
offensive against the Taliban but Islamabad has been reluctant
to move troops from the eastern border as it considers India
as its main threat. PTI