Washington, Oct.16 (ANI): Even as the Pakistan Army is all prepared and waits for a nod from the government to launch an all out offensive in South Waziristan, the Taliban’s stronghold, many inside the Canadian government who deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan issues are suspicious of Islamabad’s efforts.

They believe that Pakistan’s Army and intelligence (the Inter Services Intelligence) are far more concerned with countering India, than taking on the real enemy, which poses an existential threat to the country itself.

With the relationship between India and Afghanistan reaching new heights, Pakistan is hoping to use the Taliban in a proxy war against India to limit its influence in the region.

“The army will fight Taliban in the northwest, but leave those in Balochistan free to mount operations in Afghanistan,” a report in The Globe and Mail said.

The report said that inside the Canadian government, some harbour suspicions that while the Pakistan Army has shown willingness against the Taliban in the northwest, it has no intention of dismantling Mullah Omar’s nexus in Balochistan.

The Zardari government has been saying that it is determined to fight back the extremists, but Ottawa is skeptical about Islamabad’s actions, which was evident after it announced 25-million dollars for the victims of the military offensive in the Swat Valley despite repeated appeals from Pakistan to increase aid and trade, and the lift the decade-old arms-sales embargo. (ANI)

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/s ... 261627.html#ixzz0U6zz6AIe

FROM BEFORE - By ALEXANDER PANETTA, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR -- A former Taliban fighter has provided a gripping first-hand account of being secretly trained by members of the Pakistani military, paid $500 a month and ordered to kill foreigners in Afghanistan.

Mullah Mohammed Zaher offered a vivid description of a bomb-making apprenticeship at a Pakistani army compound where he says he learned to blow up NATO convoys.

He's one of three former Taliban fighters introduced to The Canadian Press by an Afghan government agency that works at getting rebels to renounce the insurgency.

Zaher insists he was neither forced to go public with his story nor coached by Afghan officials, whose routine response to terrorism on their soil is to blame their neighbour, Pakistan.

To read the rest of the article [Click here]