On Kerry’s visit to Pakistan, campaign against militant remains priority

By Carol Morello and Tim Craig

Secretary of State John F. Kerry flew to Pakistan on Monday to urge officials not to falter in their campaign to rout Islamist militants from the northern tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Kerry was greeted by Sartaj Aziz, the main foreign affairs adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, upon arriving in the Pakistani capital, which was draped in a thick fog and bristling with security forces.

Aziz was overheard saying that he had heard that Kerry would visit Peshawar, the site of a Dec. 16 insurgent attack on a military-run school that killed about 150 children and teachers. The school, closed since the massacre, reopened Monday.

State Department officials, however, declined to comment on Kerry’s travel plans. He later went into a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, was set to accompany Kerry at all his meetings during the 24-hour visit, signifying the American emphasis on military and security concerns.

One of the main purposes of Kerry’s visit is to encourage Pakistan to “root out” all the militant groups arrayed in the country’s tribal areas, said a State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity under department protocol.

Sharif and Pakistan’s powerful military have stepped up operations against militant groups in recent months. They say hundreds of suspected militants have been killed in airstrikes and ground attacks. They also have pledged to more closely coordinate counterterrorism operations with neighboring Afghanistan along the countries’ restive border.

Although the United States has lauded the moves, it also wants to ensure that Pakistan’s army does not let up on some of the more dangerous groups. In the past, Pakistan has been accused of pursuing groups that oppose the Islamabad government and ignoring groups that use the country as a haven to launch operations against Afghanistan and India. Pakistani officials have promised to combat all militant outfits, but U.S. officials are unconvinced that the effort will not flag.

“Part of the secretary’s core message will be to ensure that actions are met with a real and sustained effort to constrain the ability of the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Afghan Taliban and other militants who pose a threat to regional stability and to direct U.S. interests,” the official said.

Kerry is also expected to talk about boosting trade, which is a priority for Pakistan as it seeks to counter the cost of its military campaign in North Waziristan.

The United States plans to announce this week the release of $250 million for reconstruction in the affected tribal areas, which have seen an exodus of hundreds of thousands of residents amid the fighting.

During the visit, Kerry also can expect to be asked to weigh in on tensions between Pakistan and India, nuclear-armed neighbors that deeply mistrust each other. Border flare-ups have renewed in recent weeks, and Pakistan says Indian “aggression” is distracting it from its counterterrorism efforts.

Over the weekend, there were signs that Pakistani security forces were making inroads in their bid to hunt down militant leaders. Late Friday, police in the sprawling port city of Karachi said they had killed the commander of the city’s al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent group. The next day, officials announced that a key Pakistani Taliban commander was killed in a police operation in the eastern city of Lahore.

But militant groups continue to pose a threat to the nation. On Sunday, a video surfaced showing a dozen former Pakistani and Afghan Taliban leaders, including former Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, which has met with only limited success in Pakistan. At the end of the video, released by the Site Intelligence Group, insurgents can be seen beheading a man they claim was a captured Pakistani soldier.

Kerry arrived in Pakistan on the same day that students returned to the Peshawar school that was the scene of a slaughter by the Pakistani Taliban. The students will spend about a week receiving counseling and other services as part of a “soft opening” before classes fully resume.

Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s army chief, greeted the students and their parents when they arrived Monday morning. Inside the gate of the school, one parent whose child was killed in the massacre could be seen crying as she kissed some of the students.