NEW YORK, April 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has rejected any link between Islam and terrorism and called for addressing root causes of terrorism. “It is … incorrect …. to link Islam with terrorism,” he said in an interview for CBS News Up to the Minute programme.

Mr Aziz, who is in New York to co-chair the meeting of a panel of prime ministers to study the issue of United Nations reforms, said that no body knew about the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

He said: “We owe it to ourselves to see why people behave in this extreme way. As citizens of the world, we need to address the fact: What are the root causes of terrorism? Why do people go and blow themselves up? What is motivating them? What is it? A feeling of deprivation, neglect, denial of rights, denial of a voice! All these things need to be coolly and calmly analyzed.”

Asked about death of civilians in an air strike on a suspected Al Qaeda hideout in the tribal area in January, Mr Aziz said: “Naturally the people of Pakistan were upset that innocent civilians were killed. There could have been people hiding there. But our forces could have handled it in a much more amenable manner without getting the emotions of the people of the area worked up. So that’s why we were disappointed and upset and reflected our feelings and views to the US government.”

When asked if he believed that bin Laden would ever be captured, he said: “The truth is nobody has a clue where he is. Nobody knows whether he’s alive or not, and if he’s alive, where he is.”

On the Iranian nuclear issue, he said: “Iran should not get into production of nuclear weapons at all... They have every right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, but that should be done under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. We also feel use of force is not going to help solve the issue. Thirty days have been given to Iran to come up with a road map……… We think that gives them an opportunity to seriously address this issue.”

About how Pakistan views the US-India nuclear deal, he said: “We would like that all three countries — India, Pakistan and the US — sit together and come up collectively with a mechanism so that we can control proliferation, allow use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and prevent any situation which would promote production of nuclear weapons in the area.” —-APP