The arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Pakistan was greeted with horror as a car bomb exploded in the city of Peshawar, a two-hour drive from the capital and an area believed to be the hideout of al-Qaeda and Pakistani extremists. The explosion occurred in the city’s market, which is mostly populated by women.
Clinton spoke of her condemnation of the terrorist attack to reporters, “They are not courageous, they are cowardly. If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process. Let them come forth to the people of Pakistan in this democracy and make their case that they don’t want girls to go to school. That they want women to be kept back.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also expressed his anger and gave a direct message to the extremists saying, “We will not buckle. We will fight you. We will fight you because we want stability and peace in Pakistan. You are on the run, and we know that.”
Clinton has committed to provide $125 million to uphold the Signature Energy Program in Pakistan, but it may not be enough to pacify negative impressions on U.S. motives especially with the bombing’s aftermath.
“I want to make clear that the United States and Pakistan have a long history of cooperation and partnership. We have a relationship that we want to strengthen, but we don’t want it to be lopsided,” Clinton emphasised. “We don’t want it to be just about security and just about our anti-terrorist agenda, although, as I said, that’s our highest priority. So we want to strengthen democracy, we want to strengthen civilian institutions, which we think are in the best interest of the people of Pakistan.”
