BEIJING: Terming 2009 a “successful year” in its offensive against the Taliban network in Pakistan, Islamabad Ambassador to Beijing Masood Khan said that beefing up military presence is just part of the “two-track” means to eradicate terrorism in central Asia.

Troops alone don't work; what war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan urgently need is capacity building and development, said Ambassador Khan in an interview published in China Daily on Thursday prior to the start of an international conference in the UK to discuss measures to eliminate terrorism in Central Asia.

"What we really need is capacity building,” Khan said, adding  that no other nation could do a better job than Pakistan's forces on its own soil. “We, however, need help with capacity building in the areas of infrastructure, night vision equipment, communication gear, helicopters, and aircraft.”

The international community should also invest in the “development track” in the region, Khan urged. “And should do so aggressively.”

“I would say that the allocation of resources for the economic development of these affected areas is only a small fraction of what is being spent for military means,” the country's senior diplomat said, noting that Afghanistan and Pakistan are desperate for investment. “I hope this conference will prove to be beneficial in this regard,” he said.

Apart from the host nation, Britain, representatives from the International Security Assistance Force, Nato, UN and Afghanistan's immediate neighbours are to attend the conference. Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi is representing Pakistan.

In the half-an-hour interview in Beijing with China Daily, Khan discussed Pakistan's experience eight years after joining the anti-terror campaign, commented on the US strategy under US President Barack Obama, and shared his concerns about the regional situation.

“It's a war we have to win,” Khan remarked.

Other than beefing up the military and development, he said Islamabad is “trying to reach out to all levels of the Taliban to wean them away from violence and integrate them into the political mainstream”.

Khan said that Islamabad joined the war as it was “in its national interest” since Pakistan could not stay immune to the violence in the neighbouring state.

Islamabad's envoy to Beijing pointed out that his country's forces have killed more than 7,000 terrorists and apprehended about 9,000, including 901 Al-Qaeda operatives with the help of US intelligence.

The killing of Baitullah Mehsud, former head of the Pakistani Taliban, in August last year, is considered a major success for Pakistan. “I think we have dismantled the network of militants. They are scattered now,” Khan said.

But it's far from the final victory in the region. As Khan said, the situation in Afghanistan is still “unmanageable”.

Pakistan saw 3,021 deaths in terror attacks in 2009, up 48 per cent on the year before, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, released a fortnight ago.

To improve the situation, major powers have vowed to send more troops to Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama announced in November the US will send more than 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, taking the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to over 110,000 personnel.

“Sending more troops is not a bad policy,” Khan said, adding as early as 2001 his country had “warned” the US and ISAF that the number of troops they had deployed in Afghanistan was not enough.

Without enough military presence, Khan said the number of Taliban and terrorist attacks have grown over the past eight years in the region. Pakistan, he said, suffered only two suicide bombings in 2002, but 60 in 2009. Khan urged the US to not leave the region until the Afghan government is ready to shoulder the responsibility of security itself.

Islamabad is concerned that an early troop withdrawal would mean Afghanistan "becoming a place for different countries to promote their own national agenda."

Obama, however, has said that US troops will start withdrawing from the region by the end of 2011.

Khan said it was “risky” to prescribe a deadline, as July 2011 "is too close for comfort and satisfactory results."

“The main thing that has to be realised is that there should be no political vacuum (after the US leaves), because that would be a disaster for the region as well as the US.”

He also urged the US that Pakistan does not just need shadow drones, but the real thing –  predators capable of firing missiles.

"The US knows we can handle them,” Khan added. –APP