Summary Obama said there must be zero tolerance for safe havens and terrorists must be brought to justice.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - US President Barack Obama said the latest mass killing of students in terrorist attack at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda has underlined the need for more decisive action.
In an interview with the Press Trust of India published on Sunday, Obama praised recent crackdowns by Pakistani security forces but said more should be done to eradicate violent militant groups.
"Pakistan has an opportunity to show that it is serious about delegitimising, disrupting and dismantling terrorist networks," Obama told the news agency in Washington.
"In the region and around the world, there must be zero tolerance for safe havens and terrorists must be brought to justice."
Twenty-one people were killed last Wednesday in an attack at a university campus in Pakistan’s tribal northwest which was claimed by a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), barely a year after a massacre at a school in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people.
A military offensive against terrorists in the tribal areas was intensified after the Peshawar attack.
Obama said the crackdown on extremists was "the right policy" but was quoted as saying that Pakistan "can and must" take more effective action.
"Since then (Peshawar), we have seen Pakistan take action against several specific groups," said Obama.
"We have also seen continued terrorism inside Pakistan such as the recent attack on the university in northwest Pakistan."
India has blamed gunmen belonging to the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed for an attack on Pathankot air force base close to the Pakistan border earlier this month that left seven soldiers dead.
Obama said that attack in Punjab was "another example of the inexcusable terrorism that India has endured for too long".
The attack came only days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid his first visit to Pakistan, dropping in for talks with his counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his way home from Afghanistan.
Modi has resisted pressure to put ties with Pakistan back in deep freeze after the air base attack, and Obama endorsed the continuation of contacts.
"Both leaders are advancing a dialogue on how to confront violent extremism and terrorism across the region," Obama said.
TERRORISTS TRAINED IN AFGHANISTAN
Earlier on Saturday, Army spokesperson DG ISPR Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said the four gunmen who attacked a university were trained in Afghanistan and the assault was controlled by a TTP militant from a location inside Afghanistan.
In a briefing to reporters from the city of Peshawar, Bajwa said the militants received training in Afghanistan and crossed over into Pakistan from the Torkham border between the two countries.
He said the attack was masterminded by Umar Mansoor, a TTP militant based in Afghanistan who is also held responsible for the December 2014 massacre of 134 children in the city of Peshawar - the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s history.
A deputy of Mansoor helped the attackers reach the Torkham border from where they crossed over into Pakistan, the spokesman said.
The army’s claims once more highlight the need for improved relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan which would prevent militants from carrying out cross-border terrorism which have undermined peace efforts in the region.
Pakistani officials say the TTP chief known as Mullah Fazlullah has been orchestrating raids on Pakistan from Afghanistan, where he fled several years ago after a Pakistani army offensive against his stronghold in the Swat Valley.
Afghan officials see Pakistan’s suggestion that Afghans are supporting cross-border attacks as an attempt to distract attention from what they say is Pakistan’s long history of supporting Afghanistan’s Taliban movement and other insurgent factions.
"The attackers were prepared in Afghanistan," army spokesman Bajwa said. "We have come to the conclusion that terrorism cannot be fought when there are accomplices and facilitators."
Providing details of the planning of the attack, the military spokesman said the gunmen used public transportation from the Afghan border to reach Mardan city, about 30 kilometres from Charsadda, where they were received by four Pakistani men, now in army custody.
"After entering Mardan, the terrorists were received by Adil and Riaz," Bajwa said, identifying two of the suspected accomplices who he said put up the militants in two houses in Mardan.
"Adil is a labourer and just a few days ago he did some masonry work in the university, and made a map of the university which he shared with the militants," said the military spokesman.
"Adil is the one who helped the attackers carry out reconnaissance of the area around the university."
Another accomplice, identified as Noorullah, bought an auto-rickshaw and transported the attackers from Mardan to the sugarcane fields next to Bacha Khan University, which they crossed through to finally scale the walls of the campus and carry out the assault.
Pakistan has killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a major crackdown launched after the December 2014 school attack, which is seen as having hardened Pakistan’s resolve to fight militants along its border with Afghanistan.
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