Taliban, not India, greatest threat to Pakistan: Zardari

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has said that terrorism, not India, is the greatest "threat" to his country, a significant shift in Islamabad's view of its neighbour that provoked controversy back home.
     
During a meeting with EU officials in Brussels yesterday Zardari said: "I do not consider India a military threat, India is a reality, Pakistan is a reality, but Taliban are a threat, an international threat to our way of life and at the moment, I'm focused on the Taliban".

"It's something that has been going on for a long time and of course went unchecked under the dictatorial rule of the last president," he had said.

The statement marks a significant shift in Islamabad's view of its traditional rival, the Daily Telegraph said.
     
The comments provoked an immediate controversy, with members of the National Assembly raising the issue and several leading Pakistani newspapers criticising him, the paper said.

According to the report, his comments represent a victory for British and American diplomats, who have been trying to persuade Zardari and his army chiefs to concentrate their efforts on confronting the Taliban rather than India.
     
Diplomatic work intensified after the Mumbai terror attack that heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, with senior Pakistani army officers saying they would switch their forces away from fighting Islamist militants to reinforce defences along their border with India, it said.