US should re-serve 9/11-like ultimatum to Pak to crack down on terror: WSJ

Washington, April 16(ANI): Pakistan needs to be served an ultimatum by the United States on the same lines as the warning given to it immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks, a US newspaper has said.

'In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration famously sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to Islamabad to explain that the US was going to act forcefully to protect itself, and that Pakistan had to choose whose side it was on. It is time to present Pakistan with the same choice again', The Wall Street Journal said in an opinion piece.

It said that while relations between Washington and Islamabad historically have never been easy, now they seem to have "reached something of a watershed."

The article noted that Pakistan's premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), has longstanding links to terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network, and that the government and military "have made no move against the Quetta Shura, the operational nerve center in Pakistan of Taliban leader Mullah Omar."

It also pointed towards Islamabad's double-edged cooperation to the US, saying that the Pakistan Government allowed the US to increase the number of drone strikes, yet it has made a point of complaining about them publiclyto shore up its waning popularity among the countrymen.

The article also said that Islamabad must choose whose side it is on- it can choose to cooperate in the war on terror and reap the benefits of an American alliance, or it can oppose the US and reap the consequences, including the loss of military aid, special-ops and drone incursions into their frontier areas, and in particular a more robust US military alliance with India.

"However Islamabad chooses to act, the US has a vital national interest in pursuing Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in their Pakistani sanctuaries, both for the sake of the war in Afghanistan and the security of the American homeland," it noted. (ANI)