January 4, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 30, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat on Friday challenged a US military statement that the US forces are allowed to pursue attackers of its forces in Afghanistan into Pakistan.

“There is no room or legal sanctions for any cross-border operation by US forces to pursue fugitives into Pakistani territory. We have no such policy,” Faisal told AFP.

“There is no question of allowing any hot pursuit into our territory.”

Pakistan military officials were unavailable for immediate clarification of hot pursuit rights by US-led coalition forces hunting Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives in the sensitive border region.

A US military spokeswoman in Afghanistan on Thursday said US forces “may pursue attackers who attempt to escape into Pakistan to evade capture or retaliation...with the express consent of the Pakistani government.”

The statement was made in a clarification of events surrounding a US warplane’s bombing of an empty Madressah on Dec 29 on the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

A Harrier jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on the religious school after a Pakistani border scout opened fire on a US patrol and retreated to the school, from where firing continued, a US military spokeswoman asserted.

Islamabad said the bomb fell into the Pakistani territory, while the US spokeswoman claimed the building was “within the internationally-recognised Afghanistan border.”

She asserted it was in “a grey area,” 300 meters beyond a Pakistan border checkpoint, which had been established inside Afghan territory.

Reports of the incident have outraged North West Frontier Province, where anti-US feeling has run high during the 14-month-old military campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Faisal described the cooperation between the US and Pakistan troops as excellent.

“Pakistani agencies and forces have been carrying out the task successfully and there is a close liaison with coalition forces operating in Afghanistan,” the minister said.

“In view of the close cooperation there is no question of allowing any hot pursuit into our territory.”

“Pakistan is unwaveringly committed to eliminating terrorism...and the entire nation is against any terrorism activities from Pakistan soil.”—AFP