ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: A spokesman for the president has said the Dawn report claiming that President Asif Ali Zardari told tribal elders at a meeting at the Presidency on Wednesday that drone attacks will continue as the only option, is ‘shockingly untrue’.

Contradicting part of the news item headlined ‘Air attacks will go on, Zardari tells Fata elders’, published on Dec 18, the spokesman said: “It is indeed surprising that the Dawn should have headlined a report that is not attributed to any source, official or non-official.”

He said the government of Pakistan had made it clear many times that it opposed action inside Pakistan by foreign forces as it gravely undermined the ongoing fight against militancy. It has also made it clear that action against militants will be taken only by Pakistani security and law-enforcement agencies.

There is no question of the president saying what the report alleged him to have said, the spokesman said.