Pakistan rejects Islamist support

The Pakistani army Thursday rejected as "negative propaganda" suggestions that it was not doing enough to combat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, hours after the top US military officer accused its main intelligence agency of maintaining ties with militants.

The comments reflected deepening mistrust between the two uneasy allies, whose relations hit a new low after the fatal shooting of two Pakistanis by Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, in January in the city of Lahore.

"The Pakistani army's ongoing operations are a testimony of our national resolve to defeat terrorism," a military statement quoted army chief General Ashfaq Kayani as telling Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his fleeting visit to Pakistan Thursday.

"He (Kayani) strongly rejected negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough and the Pakistani army's lack of clarity on the way forward."

Mullen accused Pakistan's intelligence agency Thursday of having ties to militants targeting US troops in neighboring Afghanistan in Islamabad.

The comments were not the first by US officials railing against Pakistan's Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and their alleged links to the Haqqani network.

However, his forceful and repeated remarks to Pakistani media about those ties suggest Washington is mounting up to pressure Pakistan into a more assertive stand against Haqqani.

US-Pakistan ties have been strained this year by the case involving Davis, who shot the Pakistanis on January 27, as well as by tensions in Pakistan over US drone strikes that have fanned anti-American sentiment.

"It's fairly well known that the ISI has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network," Mulle said.

Reuters