After snubbing US on Haqqanis, Pakistan vows to act against anti-China militants

ISLAMABAD: Ruling out any possibility to act against the Haqqani network which Washington blames for attack on its embassy in Kabul, Pakistan on Tuesday vowed to eliminate Chinese militants hiding in the country's volatile tribal regions.

The strong show of support was made by interior minister Rehman Malik after his meeting with visiting Chinese vice premier Meng Jianzhu.

"We will strike very hard against them," Malik said. "Anybody who is the enemy of China is the enemy of Pakistan."

Leading a Chinese delegation, Jianzhu, who is also China's top security official, landed in the capital on Sunday and held talks with Pakistani civilian and military leaders.

Malik had earlier claimed that Pakistan had killed and extradited several Chinese militants. However, he did not specify when or from where those militants were arrested. However, militants of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) who carried out terrorist attack in China's western Xinjiang province were known to be training in Pakistan's tribal areas along with al-Qaida and other international extremist networks.

Since Pakistan's relations soured with the US over allegations that the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) supports Afghan insurgent groups, Islamabad saw a spell of overt and covert diplomatic activity aimed at diffusing the tense situation.

US ambassador Cameron Munter, who returned from Washington on Monday, met Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir. Senior Saudi intelligence officials met ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha in an attempt to bridge the divide between Pakistan and the US. Pasha left for Jeddah on Monday for further consultations with the Saudi leadership.

Iran's home minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will pay a two-day official visit to Pakistan on September 28-29.