US 'hot pursuit' roils Pakistanis

With its new "hot-pursuit" policy, America seems ready to risk offending Pakistan in order to track down potential attackers.

The policy - where the US says it reserves the right pursue fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan into Pakistan without Pakistan's permission - made public here by a US military spokesman on Friday, comes after an unprecedented attack on US solders a week ago by a Pakistani border guard during a joint US-Pakistani operation.

Both the shooting incident and the policy announcement have set off protests in Pakistan and a flurry of statements by US and Pakistani diplomats aiming to limit the damage to a relationship that American leaders consider "indispensable" to the war on terrorism.

But while both countries say that any US incursion onto Pakistani soil would be rare, both also admit that the policy could radically broaden America's hunt for terrorists along the 800-mile Afghanistan-Pakistan border where Al Qaeda and the Taliban are thought to be regrouping.

"It is a long-standing policy, that if we are pursuing enemy forces, we're not just going to tiptoe and stop right at the border," said Maj. Steve Clutter, spokesman at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. "We do reserve the right to go after them and pursue them, and that is something that Pakistan is aware of.... In hot pursuit, we're going to chase down the bad guys." Major Clutter said no such pursuits have occurred as of yet.

Back in March, the last time this issue was raised, the US said it might chase Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters into Pakistan in hot pursuit, but Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that such action would come under limited circumstances and only with Pakistani consultation. Friday's announcement was the first indication that "hot pursuit" is official US policy.

The announcement comes at a crucial phase for US-Pakistan relations. For President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, the decision to allow US troops stationed at Pakistani bases to attack a neighboring Islamic country - Taliban-controlled Afghanistan - has brought the applause of American leaders but protests from his own people. Still, for American leaders, there is a growing sense that Mr. Musharraf and Pakistan could be doing much more to rein in terrorists on Pakistani soil. The question now is whether pushing Musharraf harder would bring Pakistan to the brink of open rebellion.

"It's more of a step forward in an old direction," says M. Afzal Niazi, columnist for the Nation newspaper in Lahore. "There has been a steady encroachment of territory and an erosion of sovereignty." Public reaction will "depend on two things: if anyone is killed and the frequency [of incidents]. If it's every two or three months, then it probably won't cause much of a stir. But if it's every two or three days and two or three kilometers into Pakistani territory ... that's another thing."

Page: 1 | 2