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| April 6, 2006 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1427 |
Forces dedicated to crushing terror, says Sherpao
WASHINGTON, April 5: Pakistan’s interior minister has objected to reports claiming that Al Qaeda’s top leaders are hiding in Pakistan, saying his forces are dedicated to crushing terrorism and would act if evidence of that existed. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, now visiting Washington to meet FBI Director Robert Mueller, US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez, lawmakers and CIA and State Department officials, said here on Wednesday.
Pakistan is a crucial ally of the United States in President George W. Bush’s campaign against terrorists, but US officials have said the South Asian country could do more to hunt down Al Qaeda members. US analysts believe the group’s leaders are hiding along the Pakistan-Afghan border, probably on the Pakistan side.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Mr Sherpao spoke about the pursuit of Al Qaeda’s most wanted, tensions with neighbouring Afghanistan and a Jan 13 US missile strike in Pakistan that led to angry protests from demonstrators who claimed Pakistan’s sovereignty had been violated.
He said Pakistan had no evidence that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri or Taliban leader Mullah Omar were in Pakistan.
“You give us the evidence, and we’ll go ahead,” he said. “Osama is no friend of ours. If he’s against the American government, he’s against Pakistan also.”
He said his forces “can’t really go on a wild goose chase, in that sense. We can only act if we get credible information about the hideout of these three people.”
Mr Sherpao also suggested that the leaders were not being protected by Pakistani or Afghan tribes along the border, as some analysts and government officials had speculated.
“Even if a tribe is protecting them, don’t you think that it’s going to leak out, or people are going to find out?” he asked. “This is something that you just can’t keep a secret.”
The minister said Pakistan’s casualties in fighting terrorism, more than 300 dead and about 700 injured, “shows our resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms.”
Mr Sherpao also addressed tense relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have hit new lows as violence has increased. Afghan officials have said attacks in Afghanistan are led by forces operating out of Pakistan.
Last month, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf chastised Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying the Afghan leader should deal with what Musharraf called “the conspiracy going on against Pakistan” in Afghanistan’s defence ministry and intelligence organisations.
Mr Sherpao said there had been “some misunderstandings” with Afghanistan, some “accusations and counteraccusations,” but he said Pakistan wanted peace and stability in Afghanistan.
He noted that Pakistan has 78,000 forces on the border with Afghanistan, with hundreds of checkpoints. “We expect that on the other side also they should at least match” the forces Pakistan is providing, he said.
He also said that Pakistan had raised with US officials the issue of the Jan 13 US missile attack that killed 13 residents, asking that if the United States has information on suspected terrorists, it first should be shared with Pakistan. “It is the prerogative of the Pakistani law-enforcement agencies to act on that,” he said.
When asked if Pakistan has received assurance from the United States that such an attack would not happen again, the minister answered “yes.”—AP
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