The several peace deals by the Pakistani establishment with the Taliban have only resulted in more terrorist incidents and insurgent activities in Afghanistan, a top US Defence official has said.
"To a considerable degree, the beginning of greater Taliban activity in Afghanistan began as Pakistan started these peace agreements with various insurgent and extremist groups on their western border, which then freed the Taliban to come across the border as they felt no pressure from the Pakistani army," the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.
Testifying before a Congressional committee on Tuesday, Gates said situation in the region has continued to worsen.
"It is a combination of the Taliban, which are the heart of the problem we face but not the only piece of it; the Haqqani network, Al Qaida and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and these others," he observed.
"So as this problem became worse in terms of the violence caused by the Taliban coming across the border from Pakistan, I think it is self-evident that we were under-resourced to deal with it. We did not have the military capabilities or the civilian capabilities, in terms of counterinsurgency, to be able to deal with it," Gates said.
