US considers withholding USD255m aid to Pakistan: report
It claimed Pakistan rejected US demand to give access to abductor of Canadian-American family
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The United States (US) is considering to withhold the aid worth USD 225 million to Pakistan over not giving access to the arrested abductors in the rescue operation of Canadian-American family, New York Times report claimed on Friday.
The Pakistan Army had rescued the US-Canadian family held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network. It said that the troops shot at their vehicle’s tyres, as it offered a fuller account Friday of the operation to rescue the hostages. American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle, who were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012 and had all three of their children in captivity, have left Pakistan after being freed.
The report claimed that one of the abductors was arrested by the forces and it can help the US to give information about more American hostages, adding that after Islamabad’s rejection, the US under Trump administration is unhappy. The blocking of this aid will be a show of dissatisfaction from the policies of Islamabad, it said.
The US President Donald Trump had warned in August that Washington will no longer tolerate Pakistan offering "safe havens" to extremists. "We can no longer be silent about Pakistan s safe havens for terrorist organizations," Trump declared, outlining a new US security strategy in South Asia.
The US Congress had in November given green signal to release around 700 million dollars under the umbrella of Coalition Support Fund, a reimbursement amount for Pakistan on its continued support of US operations in Afghanistan.
