US wants Peshawar corps commander out for aiding taliban
Dated 9/8/2005
Printer Friendly
Subscribe
9 August 2005: The United States has put pressure on Pakistan to change its Peshawar corps commander, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussein, and some of his subordinate officers, alleging that they were aiding in the regrouping of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the run up to the crucial parliamentary polls in autumn, but General Parvez Musharraf has conveyed it would be difficult to act in this manner, but would try to meet American concerns.
Just before leaving command of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, US Lieutenant General David Barno wrote a damaging report against the Peshawar Corps, saying that its troops were increasingly mingling with the Taliban remnants, and that they had been putting up highly skilled infantry battles with his forces in the past eleven months, describing them, and said that captured weaponry, ranging from AK-47s, mine-laying equipment, to SAMs, all bore Pakistani ordnance markings.
In April, Hussein had clashed with Barno's statement about probable Pakistani army action in North Waziristan against terrorist networks, calling it a 'figment of his imagination', and now, the Peshawar Corps commander has cried off from anti-Al-Qaeda/ Taliban operations in South Waziristan as well, saying that troops are facing great hostility from local tribals.
Diplomats said Hussein has refused to carry out military action against hardcore Islamists and Taliban cadres, because of the growing anti-Pakistan tendencies of the locals, and he has communicated that officers of the Peshawar Corps would like that Pakistan act for its own interests instead of those of others, hinting at the US.
The US, on the other hand, has been insisting that either Pakistan change the Peshawar corps commander or permit American forces to permanently operate from South Waziristan, and presently, it has three mainly intelligence-gathering stations in the area. Previously, Hussein has even refused joint action by US and Pakistani forces in the region infested with Al-Qaeda and Taliban cadres.
