US denies any hand in Operation Silence

The United States has denied playing any role in the operation to flush out militants holed up in the Lal Masjid even as it backed the Pakistan government's decision to storm the mosque.

Asked if the United States played a role or asked for any help, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack replied, "Not that I know of. I doubt it."

In the process that there might have been contacts, which were asking the Pakistanis for 'status updates' so that it could be reported back, he told media persons.

"But I am not aware of any, sort of, operational linkages. And certainly, we are not in the business of telling the Pakistani government when they should or should not end negotiations," the spokesman remarked.

Earlier spokesman Tom Casey had said, "The government of Pakistan has proceeded in a responsible way."

He also expressed unwillingness to draw a comparison between the similarities of the stand-off in Pakistan over the Lal Masjid and what took place in India at the Golden Temple in 1984.

"I am not going to try to make any linkage between these two events. I think you have to deal with them in their own right and their own unique circumstances," McCormack said, replying to a question.

"As I understand it, it still is an ongoing matter with respect to the Lal Masjid. The Pakistani security forces have gone in there, after exercising a great deal of patience and restraint and offering every possible opportunity for innocents that may still be in the mosque to leave," he said.