Top US military commander General James Mattis met with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Saturday and discussed military relations between the two countries. The security situation in North Waziristan and on the Pak-Afghan border also came under discussion during the meeting, sources said.
General Mattis also provided an update on the current US strategy in Afghanistan, besides discussing other regional security issues. It is learnt that General Kayani demanded a joint investigation into cross-border attacks launched inside Pakistan from Afghanistan. Earlier, in a statement, the US Embassy in Islamabad said that General James Mattis, Head of US Central Command, arrived in Pakistan late on Friday, and that he would meet the army chief, General Kayani.
Defence experts termed the meeting very important at a time when the United States believes that the leaders of Pakistan's intelligence services are directly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has increased its attacks against US troops and other targets in Afghanistan. General Kayani has already warned the US that the charges were baseless and part of a public "blame game", detrimental to peace in Afghanistan. He termed the allegations very unfortunate and not based on facts.