February 22, 2007	Thursday	Safar 4, 1428

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WASHINGTON, Feb 21: Pakistan took out two terrorist hideouts in the tribal area on intelligence provided by the United States, Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani said on Wednesday.

He told the C-Span television channel that the United States had the capability to provide such intelligence because of its satellites and other facilities.

Ambassador Durrani, however, dismissed the suggestion that Pakistan had joined the war against terrorism to please the United States. “For us it is a life and death question, involving the very future of our country,” he said.

He also rejected criticism that Pakistan was not doing enough, noting that Pakistan had deployed more than 80,000 troops in the tribal territory and scores of Pakistani soldiers had been killed fighting the terrorists.

Mr Durrani said that there was no Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, as alleged in recent reports in the US media. “Whenever, we learn of such a facility, we take it out,” he added.

Replying to a question, he said Osama bin Laden was not in Pakistan and the reports claiming his presence on the Pakistani soil were part of a campaign to malign Pakistan. “We must stop this blame game now. It’s not fair to blame Pakistan,” a country which has done more than any other in the fight against terrorists, he said.

The ambassador also defended the deal with tribal leaders in North Waziristan, pointing out that this war cannot be won without taking the tribal chiefs into confidence.

He predicted that the Afghan government would also be forced to make similar deals with tribal leaders on the other side of the Durand Line.

He agreed that the Waziristan deal may not have worked a hundred per cent but it had worked “50 to 70 per cent.”