Pakistan has strongly reacted to a reported letter from the U.S. president to his Pakistani counterpart that is said to urge Pakistan to do more in the fight against extremists. The response was made as four people were killed and 25 injured by a bomb in northwestern Pakistan, the seventh such attack in as many days.

Pakistan’s FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi during Council of Ministers Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 02 Nov 2009

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says his country will decide on its own, according to its priorities and resources, on how to fight militants.
He says the international community recognizes Pakistan’s sacrifices and unity in the face of Islamist extremists. He says his country does not need to do more or less because someone is saying so.

Qureshi was responding to a U.S. media report that quoted unnamed American officials as saying U.S. National Security Advisor Jim Jones delivered a letter from U.S. President Barack Obama to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Jones arrived Friday in Pakistan, the same day two suicide bombers struck in and around Peshawar. One blast targeted the regional office of Pakistan’s spy agency, destroying much of the building.

According to a New York Times article, Mr. Obama encouraged his Pakistani counterpart to rally the nation’s political and national security institutions in the fight against extremists.

Qureshi says Pakistan is in close consultations with senior U.S. officials on Afghan policy. President Obama is considering whether to send more troops to the country, and Qureshi says he hopes any troop increase would not lead to instability in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a suicide bombing in the town of Badh Ber outside Peshawar severely damaged several buildings, including the police station and a nearby mosque.
This area of northwestern Pakistan has suffered a large number of suspected militant attacks, killing hundreds of people since the army launched its offensive in mid-October against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.

Authorities say the militants are retaliating for the military offensive in Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
On Sunday, militants attacked the homes of two pro-government elders near Peshawar, killing one of them. Separately in the Bajaur tribal region, local police say gunmen shot dead an anti-Taliban tribal elder at his home.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is increasing pressure on Pakistan to fight Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants as part of a revised US strategy for the Afghanistan war, The New York Times reported Monday.

During a little-publicized visit to Pakistan last week, National Security Adviser James Jones met with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders, including army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.

He also delivered a letter from President Barack Obama to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari urging him to get Pakistan’s political and national security institutions engaged in a united campaign against militants threatening both their country and Afghanistan, according to the Times.

Obama presented a range of fresh incentives to Islamabad in his letter, including enhancing intelligence sharing and military cooperation, it added, citing an official brief on its contents.

The report comes as some Pakistani officials have expressed concern that any major US troop increase in Afghanistan — as Obama is expected to announce shortly — could push Taliban fighters into Pakistan.

Yet Islamabad has warned against any precipitous US troop drawdown, saying it could encourage Afghan fighters to pour across the border into South Waziristan, becoming Pakistan’s problem.

The White House has said Obama is now factoring a US exit strategy as part of his Afghanistan war plans.

"Whatever we do — put in more troops or put in fewer troops — they’ll freak out," a US intelligence officer told the Times.

But he also stressed that "we need to be much more convincing that we have a better game plan."

Although Jones had good words during his visit for Pakistan’s operation against extremists in South Waziristan, he also urged officials to target militants who took refuge in North Waziristan, according to the newspaper.

He told Pakistani officials that the revamped US strategy Obama is expected to announce would only garner success if Pakistan expanded its fight to also target Al-Qaeda support networks and groups using Pakistani territory to plot and carry out attacks against US troops in Afghanistan, it added.

The United States has put Pakistan on the frontline of its war against Al-Qaeda and has been increasingly concerned by rising insecurity in a country where attacks and bombings have killed more than 2,500 people in 28 months. New US Afghan plan ups pressure on Pakistan: report (AFP) –Pakistan Strongly Reacts to Reported Obama Letter By Sean Maroney Islamabad 16 November 2009