Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has rejected the allegation that Pakistan is going soft in the war on terror and citing the country's sustained and firm counter-terrorism measures over the years and loss of hundreds of its soldiers, stressed the key South Asian ally has done more than any other country in fighting terrorism.
In an interview with Cable News Network (CNN), Kasuri, who is visiting Washington as part of regular high-level consultations on further augmenting the US-Pakistan ties, also dismissed the assertion that Pakistan provided sanctuary to extremists.
"I strongly reject any suggestion which says that we have given sanctuary," he told Wolf Blitzer in CNN's Situation Room, while replying to a question vis-à-vis allegation that Taliban had sanctuary along Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
Putting the record straight, the foreign minister reminded that Taliban leader Mullah Omar belonged to Kandahar, which was in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan and the al Qaeda operated from within Afghanistan until 9/11. In those bombings of Tora Bora, these people ran away. And some of them went into the tribal areas.
"Now, the American and Pakistani intelligence is in close co-operation with each other. If there is a failure, it's fair to say it's a collective failure. Let's not pin it onto Pakistan," he said.
In answer to another question, he wondered what more should Pakistan be doing when it had been consistently combating terrorists and lost more soldiers in fighting them in the border region than Nato and international forces combined on the Afghan side.
The foreign minister said Washington was not pressing Pakistan to do more but was appreciative of its efforts to curb terrorism. "I met Secretary Rice. She understands what we are doing. People who understand what we are doing don't press, because they know how much we are doing," he stated referring to close intelligence co-operation and a high degree of trust between the two sides.
Kasuri said Pakistan's strategic assets were safe and ruled out the possibility of their falling into wrong hands. In this context, he referred to strict command and controls the country has introduced in recent years.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.