President General Pervez Musharraf has said "al Qaeda is on the run, they are hiding" on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and army is pursuing them as well as the Taleban supporters in South Waziristan.
The President said this in an interview on Friday with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth, excerpts of which have been published on Sunday.
The President pledged to crack down on extremist groups operating in Pakistan.
Asked who were behind the assassination attempts against him, the President said: "We don't know it yet."
He assented that maybe, it was al Qaeda and added: "There are some Arabs involved - some non-Pakistanis. Al Qaeda comes mostly from the Arab world.
We are sure that one person got an instruction from an individual who was a non-Pakistani. We don't have that man. When we get him, he will tell us who ordered him to do it. Maybe, it was Zawahiri."
The President said "but these people are not overt, they are not roaming around the street proclaiming 'I am a member of the Jaish or another jihadi group'.
All our law enforcement agencies are hunting the extremists down and many arrests have been made. We have to get to their leaders.
Pakistan-India relations and proliferation are the other subjects on which the President elaborated Pakistan's policy and commitment, making it categorically clear that the government was not involved in any transfer of nuclear know-how or technology.
On Pakistan-India relations, he spoke about turning a new page in Pakistan's tense relations with neighbouring India.
Asked did he think al Qaeda is on the run or very active, President Musharraf said: "Surely, they are on the run. They are hiding. They don't have contact or communication with each other any more."
To a question was the US assisting in finding those who attacked him, the President said: "Our own intelligence operations have produced excellent results, but we are being assisted by other intelligence resources."
Asked that al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri actually threatened his life, "didn't he?" the President said: "Yes, and the start of the planning (for the assassination) coincided with that."
"I don't believe in taking impulsive decisions. One has to absorb shocks and then take balanced decisions," he said when asked why was he very cool after these two recent attacks on his life, and as to what was his reaction to the events.
Asked what was his decision, the President said: "We have to go after whoever perpetrated this act and after religious intolerance or whatever the sources of the extremism are. That is what we are doing. We need to operate strongly against al Qaeda and against the banned extremist parties.
Asked to comment on the earlier accusations of so-called cross-border terrorism in occupied Kashmir, the President reiterated that what is happening in occupied Kashmir is a struggle for freedom - "but let us leave that behind.
Whenever anyone asks me now, while rapprochement with India is going on, (I say), let's not talk of cross-border terrorism, let's leave that behind and focus on the future."
"We have been playing this blame game in the past but let's leave it to the past."
Asked would he pursue al Qaeda on return from Davos, General Musharraf said: "We have been doing so since the start."
In fact, he said operation was underway in the tribal belt "where the Pakistan army and the British never venture before. This is the first time that we have entered these areas."
As to where was Osama bin Laden?, the President said, he might be "on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, giving him the opportunity of crossing and re-crossing."
To a question would he run for the presidency in the elections scheduled for 2007, General Musharraf said that he was not a politician. "I don't think it's in me. There is a lot of time."
Asked again as to who carried out the assassination attempts, the President said one has to find out who passed the orders: "Indications are that al Qaeda is involved. We have rounded up all those who planned and executed the operation. We have to find out who gave the orders in al Qaeda (command)."
Of the action taken against a group like 'Jaish-e-Mohammed', he said Pakistan has already "shut them down". Jaish-e-Mohammed, he said, "is banned, but there are groups with links to Jaish-e-Mohammed. Anyone involved in them is being arrested."
Responding to another question, President General Pervez Musharraf emphatically said: "This is not a banana republic. Our military is extremely disciplined. Every commander is on board with me.
A very low-level person in uniform was possibly involved but no one at an officer level."
On the oft-repeated accusation that Pakistan was involved in nuclear technology transfer to countries like Libya, President Musharraf said: "Pakistan has not at all been charged. Some individuals in Pakistan and also some Europeans have been charged."
"It started with Iran giving the names of some individuals who helped them get nuclear designs or whatever they had. These names included some Pakistanis and a number of Europeans. I got (the list) from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and then we started our investigation.
We discovered there is an underworld of people who have been manufacturing. Most of them come from Europe."
As to had he "actually put in place new controls on technology transfers", the President said: "Yes. There are strong custodial controls in Pakistan and there is no possibility of a leakage."
"Before, there was a covert programme for, maybe, 30 years, and there was a lot of autonomy given to the organisation and individuals running the programme. There was a lot of chance for leakage's. Now it's no longer covert. It's overt."
"We are a nuclear and a missile state. And there are total custodial controls and an intelligence organisation and a number of rings around our establishment to ensure prevention of any leakage. There is no question of leakages any more from our side."
"It is not Pakistan," President Musharraf emphatically said as the questioner completed the words of accusation that it is said that Pakistan is one of the proliferators in the world.
He said: "It is not Pakistan. These are individuals and our investigation has concluded that no government of Pakistan - and I don't have a soft spot for the governments of (former prime ministers) Benazir (Bhutto) and Nawaz (Sharif) - sanctioned or authorised anyone to proliferate. There are individuals whose names have come up.
"There's a new sort of threat taking shape, isn't there? Now, when we talk about proliferation, we may be talking about something as simple as someone selling the phone number of a contact who has the design for a uranium enrichment centrifuge."
"We are investigating whatever our scientists are involved in. When it's a question of knowledge or the know-how to build a centrifuge, it's in the mind of a person or in diagrams that can be carried in a briefcase or in a pocket. If it's in the mind of a person, you can t intercept it," the President said.
Questioned what does he expect to come out of his talks with India, the President said confidence building measures are going on.
The two foreign offices are interacting to decide on the venue, the date and the level of the contact.
As to has Pakistan's policy on Kashmir changed, the President said that he has never said anywhere that we need to have a Kashmir agreement before anything else - "I have always maintained that we should move simultaneously on all issues."
"The problem before was that Kashmir was never included. Now there is a change. For the first time, the joint statement (issued by India and Pakistan after their most recent round of talks) recognises Kashmir as a dispute to be resolved. It recognises that Pakistan is a party to the dispute. So, this is the source of my optimism.
To another question on claim of crossing of Line of Control (LoC) by jihadi groups, the President said, "we never said we crossed the Line of Control. Let's close this chapter."
Asked could he clarify his position on whether a plebiscite is required in Kashmir - which has traditionally been Pakistan's position - the President emphasised that "No unilateral action can be taken".
"I have been saying that we must go beyond stated positions and show flexibility. But it can't be done unilaterally by Pakistan. So, there is reciprocity involved."
On the questioned on his uniform, he said he always thought some day or other he had to remove the uniform. "I felt that I needed to show flexibility in terms of stabilising the political atmosphere."
To a question whether he made a mistake by banning the main secular parties, the President: "No parties have been banned."
"Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are outside the country. Benazir is outside by her own choice - no one sent her out and she is not returning, by her own choice. Nawaz Sharif went out through an agreement with Saudi Arabia. He went laughing and smiling.
Both are not allowed to contest elections because according to a constitutional amendment, you cannot be prime minister for the third time, and they have looted and plundered the nation and brought it close to disaster."
About the government of (Afghanistan) President (Hamid) Karzai, the President said: "It is the hope for the future. Under the circumstances, Karzai is doing well."
As to what was his assessment of the US operation in Iraq and its aftermath, President Musharraf said: "We must ensure the territorial integrity of Iraq. It would affect the region, and indirectly Pakistan, if the territorial integrity would not ensured.
The governance and the economic resources should be handed over to an Iraqi government as soon as possible."
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