ISLAMABAD, June 18: A Foreign Office spokesman on Saturday rejected as irresponsible a statement by the former US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, claiming that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was in Pakistan.
“It does not behove a senior official like Zalmay Khalilzad to make such irresponsible statements,” Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told APP.
Commenting on the statement by Mr Khalilzad, the spokesman said the interview with an alleged Taliban leader at an undisclosed location did not mean that Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan.
“They could be anywhere in the world, including Afghanistan,” he added.
Mr Jilani said if Mr Khalilzad has any specific intelligence information with regard to the presence of the two individuals, “he should come forward and share it with us”.
The spokesman further added that Mr Khalilzad’s statements were at variance with the US administration, which had acknowledged and praised Pakistan’s efforts in fighting international terrorism.
Earlier, the outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan had claimed that there was a good chance Taliban leader Mullah Omar was hiding in Pakistan and accused Islamabad of failing to act against fugitive Taliban leaders, adds Reuters.
Khalilzad had asked an interviewer why a Pakistani television channel could conduct an interview with a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, broadcast on Wednesday, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders.
