US reminds Pakistan it’s still ‘on notice’ for Taliban ‘sanctuaries’

Washington, June 22: A top US official has reminded Pakistan that it is still “on notice” to eliminate terror havens from its territory and said that Washington wants unequivocal cooperation in ending sanctuaries enjoyed by the Taliban on its soil. “Pakistan is on notice that we expect its unequivocal cooperation ending sanctuaries that the Taliban have enjoyed since the remnants of their toppled regime fled into Pakistan in 2001,” said Ambassador Alice Wells, Senior Bureau Official for South and Central Asian Affairs, in a testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday. In this year’s New Year Day message, US President Donald Trump had put Islamabad on notice, accusing it of “taking billions and billions of dollars” from Washington while “housing the same terrorists” that it was supposed to fight. Later, he suspended more than two billion dollars of security aid to Pakistan. (IANS)