Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., is concerned about the growing Indian influence in Afghanistan, and says his country does not want to be caught in a "pincers movement" on the issue.
"We are concerned about the influence of India in Afghanistan because we have had conflict with India and we do not want to have a situation in which we are caught in a pincers movement," he told the popular Charlie Rose Show of the PBS Thursday.
He said though Islamabad was working hard to bring about normalcy in its relations with New Delhi, outstanding issues kept cropping up. He said the solution to that lay in talking to both Indians and Afghans, which Pakistan was doing.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army has rejected reports of extra-judicial killings and mass arrests in its operations in the tribal areas in the country's volatile northwest.
Commander of Peshawar-based Corps, Lt.-Gen. Asif Yaseen Malik, said vested interests were spreading rumors about extra-judicial killings to defame the armed forces. He said that the army was fighting the militants and not the people, and asserted troops would stay in the region till the situation improved.
The three-star General was responding to media reports of unclaimed bodies having been found in large areas of Malakand division and Swat valley.
He said that government had set up anti-terrorism courts in the area and the trials of terrorists were underway. He added troops would continue their operations in the restive tribal areas, and claimed that militants had sustained great losses in these operations.
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