Pakistan Day #2 *updated*

Secretary Clinton’s second day in Pakistan is well under way already. She has visited the Badshahi Masjid in Lahore today and she has apparently also had a town hall appearance at the Government College of Lahore:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that Pakistan had little choice but to take a more aggressive approach, starting last summer, to combatting Taliban and other extremist forces that threaten to destabilize the country.

In a lively give-and-take with students at the Government College of Lahore, Clinton said inaction by the government would have amounted to ceding ground to terrorists.

“If you want to see your territory shrink, that’s your choice,” she said, adding that she believed it would be a bad choice.

Clinton likened Pakistan’s situation – with Taliban forces taking over substantial swaths of land in the Swat valley and in areas along the Afghan border – to a theoretical advance of terrorists into the United States from across the Canadian border. It would be unthinkable, she said, for the U.S. government to decide, “Let them have Washington (state)” first, then Montana, then the sparsely populated Dakotas, because those states are far from the major centers of population and power on the East Coast.

Clinton was responding to a student who suggested that Washington was forcing Pakistan to use military force on its own territory. It was one of several questions from the students that raised doubts about the relationship between the United States and Pakistan.

During her hour-long appearance at the college, Clinton stressed that a key purpose of her three-day visit to Pakistan, which began Wednesday, was to reach out to ordinary Pakistanis and urge a better effort to bridge differences and improve mutual understanding.

“We are now at a point where we can chart a different course,” she said, referring to past differences over an absence of democracy in Pakistan and Pakistani association with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Although Clinton said she was making a priority of engaging frankly and openly on her visit, she declined to talk about a subject that has stirred some of the strongest feelings of anti-Americanism here – U.S. drone aircraft attacks against extremist targets on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border. The Obama administration routinely refuses to acknowledge publicly that the attacks are taking place.

“There is a war going on,” she said, and the U.S. wants to help Pakistan be successful.

The drone attacks have killed a number of Pakistani civilians, while also reportedly succeeding in eliminating some high-level Taliban and other extremist group leaders.

Before flying to Lahore from Islamabad, Clinton visited the Bari Imam shrine, named after Shah Abdul Latif Kazmi, a 17th century Sufi saint who died in 1705 and later came to be known as the patron saint of Islamabad. A suicide bomber struck the shrine in May 2005, killing a number of people…

Apparently during the town hall many of the students seemed suspicious of the United States’ intent with respect to Pakistan and also suspicious of our relationship with India. All of this really was to be expected given the history of anti-Americanism in the region.

More photos and news from earlier in her day:

Pakistani workers roll out a red carpet at The Badshahi Masjid in Lahore on October 28, 2009, ahead of the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images).

On Thursday, she toured the massive red sandstone Badshahi Mosque in central Lahore, extolling the cultural achievements of a country more often in the headlines for political and religious strife.

But the tense security situation in Pakistan was clear. Gunmen stood guard in the mosque minarets, while Lahore’s normally busy main streets were emptied and armed police kept bystanders penned back in narrow alleyways as Clinton’s motorcade sped past…

In this photo provided by Pakistan Muslim League, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, meets Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. Clinton is on a three-day state visit to Pakistan. (AP Photo/Pakistan Muslim League)

She met with the Prime Minister of Pakistan and he has asked Secretary Clinton to help mediate talks with India:

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani called upon Wednesday the visiting United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mediation between Pakistan and India over Kashmir and water disputes.

Talking to Hillary Clinton, the prime minister also sought U.S. help to enhance Pakistan’s defense capability to maintain balance of powers in the region, the prime minister office said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, second right, together with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, right, leaves flowers at the grave of the Poet Muhammad Iqbal, at the Iqbal Memorial in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. Clinton is on a three-day state visit to Pakistan. (AP Photo)

While apprising the U.S. Secretary of State on the progress of law enforcement operation in Waziristan tribal area, the prime minister underlined the fact that the civilians and defense establishment as well as all the political forces of the country were fully united behind it which was reflective of the nation’s firm resolve to root out the evil forces from Pakistan’s territory.

He called upon the U.S. to expedite replenishment of the urgently needed military hardware to strengthen the hands of Pakistan’s armed forces in the ongoing operation.

The prime minister termed the drone attacks being launched by the U.S. in tribal region and consequent collateral damage as a source of major concern for Pakistan and urged the U.S. administration to provide the drone technology to Pakistan.

The prime minister welcomed the U.S. offer to reinvigorate Pakistan-U.S. strategic dialogue and stressed the need of strategic stability in South Asia for maintenance of peace. He firmly asserted that Pakistan will never compromise on its legitimate security interests and will continue to maintain the minimum credible deterrence for its defense.

Hillary Clinton commended the prime minister for his stance of reconciliation and the desire for improving relations with India through resolution of all the outstanding issues by resuming the composite dialogue. She said that while she was aware that it is a difficult process, the U.S. government would support the efforts for early resumption of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.

She congratulated the prime minister on taking very difficult decisions to fight the terrorism. She acknowledged that Pakistan had proven its resolve in the fight against militancy and the U.S. would support Pakistan in every possible way to succeed.

The Secretary of State said that she had come to listen and understand the concerns and problems that the government of Pakistan was facing in these challenging times. She assured the prime minister of her government’s sincerity in developing a long term strategic partnership with Pakistan by overcoming the differences and through mutual consultations…

More later….

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