No Taliban office in Pakistan: Sherpao: Computerised arms licences launched
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The government has rejected a recent report of the International Crisis Group (ICG) about the Taliban having established their headquarters in Quetta. "Taliban have not established any office in Quetta or any other part of the country," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the launching of computerised arms licenses at the interior ministry, he said the government had been making best possible efforts to stop movement across the Afghan border.
"Recently, we held 300 Afghans while entering Pakistan and 200 of them have been repatriated," the minister said.
Mr Sherpao said a biometrics system had been installed at on the Afghan border to check infiltration of Taliban.
He said Afghan refugees staying in camps in Chaman had been issued special cards to check presence of Taliban or other elements.
The government, he said, had decided to establish five more refugee camps in the border areas.
He said the commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, who recently visited the country, had been apprised of the efforts being made by the government to stop cross-border movement and they had expressed satisfaction over the arrangements.
About differences in the ruling coalition over the women’s protection law, the minister expressed the hope that the government would soon convince the annoyed Muttahida Qaumi Movement on the issue.
PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would soon hold a meeting with MQM leaders to resolve the issue, he said.
