US defence secretary Mattis asks Pakistan to 'redouble efforts to confront terrorists'

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday asked Pakistan's civilian and military leaders to "redouble" their efforts to confront militants and terrorists operating within the country.

"The Secretary reiterated that Pakistan must redouble its efforts to confront militants and terrorists operating within the country," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Jim Mattis, who visited Pakistan for the first time as defence secretary, said before the trip that the goal for his meetings with Pakistani officials would be to find "common ground".

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Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in his discussion with Mattis, said Pakistan was "committed to the war against terror."

"We're committed (to) the war against terror," he said. "Nobody wants peace in Afghanistan more than Pakistan."

The US defence secretary, who is on a one-day visit to Pakistan, said the South Asian nation had made progress in the fight against militancy inside its borders but needed to make more efforts.

Jim Mattis also met Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar, the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency that S
officials say has links with Haqqani and Taliban militants.

Mattis did not stop in Pakistan when he visited the region earlier this year, but visited India, whose ties with the US have grown under the Trump administration.

More than a 100 days back, President Donald Trump had announced a South Asia strategy that had called for a hardening of the US approach towards against Pakistan.

The US President had said it could not be silent about "Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond."

US officials say they have not seen a change in Pakistan's support for militants, despite visits by senior US officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"We have been very direct and very clear with the Pakistanis ... we have not seen those changes implemented yet," General John Nicholson, the top US general in
Afghanistan, said this week.

"There is not an effective stick anymore because Pakistan doesn't really care about U.S aid, it has been dwindling anyway and it is getting the money it needs elsewhere
... treat it with respect and actually reward it when it does do something good," said Madiha Afzal, with the Brookings Institution.

Hafiz Saeed accused of masterminding the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Mumbai was recently freed from house arrest. The White House has warned Pakistan that his release could have repercussions for US.-Pakistan relations and has asked the country to re-arrest the LeT co-founder.

"I think for Pakistan, the timing is very bad. There is talk about progress being made against extremists and here you have a situation where religious hardliners have
basically been handed everything they wanted on a silver platter," said Michael Kugelman, with the Woodrow Wilson think-tank in Washington.

(With inputs from Reuters)