Taliban rejects Negroponte's comments about Osama

[Owais]

Taliban rejects Negroponte's comments about Osama


DUBAI (updated on: January 13, 2007, 13:57 PST): A top Taliban leader in Pakistan said in remarks aired on Saturday his group would protect and guard al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri if they turned up in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

"I have not met Osama or Zawahri and they did not come to our region. We hope to see them and if they show up in our area we will protect them with our bodies and souls," Mullah Mohammad Nazir told Al Jazeera television in remarks dubbed into Arabic.

US intelligence chief John Negroponte claimed on Thursday al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hide-out in Pakistan, but the government there says the United States has not given it any information about their presence in Pakistan.

Negroponte told the US Senate select committee on intelligence that Pakistan was the centre of an al Qaeda web that radiated out to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Local newspapers said last month Nazir had been appointed as Taliban chief in the country's tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

 

[Neo]

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Osama not seen in Pakistan: Taliban leader

DUBAI: A top Taliban leader in Pakistan said in remarks aired on Saturday his group would protect and guard Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri if they turned up in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “I have not met Osama or Zawahri and they did not come to our region. We hope to see them and if they show up in our area we will protect them with our bodies and souls,” Mullah Mohammad Nazir told Al Jazeera television in remarks dubbed into Arabic. US intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday Al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan, but the Pakistani government says the United States has not given it any information about their presence in Pakistan.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\14\story_14-1-2007_pg7_4

 

[Neo]

Monday, January 15, 2007

There is no terrorist sanctuary in Pakistan: Aziz

* PM tells CNN Pakistan has done more against terrorism than other countries
* Says stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s national interest

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has emphatically denied that there are any terrorist hideouts or sanctuaries in Pakistan as alleged by US intelligence czar John Negraponted at a congressional hearing last week.

In a live interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister listed a whole range of steps Pakistan has taken in its border areas with Afghanistan. He also refuted Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s allegations that the source of the problems in his country was Pakistan. Aziz said it is in Pakistan’s national interest to have a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. He said Pakistan is still hosting three million Afghan refugees and it wants them to return home.

He pointed out that there is much traditional to-and-fro traffic across the 1,400-mile border Pakistan shares with Afghanistan and it is possible that some who come and go may have Taliban connections.

Aziz also denied that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are in Pakistan as has often been alleged in the West. He said had they been there, Pakistan would have caught them. “The truth is that if any of these or other individuals are in our territory, we will go after them and we have no information. If the world knew where these people were, they would collectively come and go after them wherever they are. The fact is that nobody knows where they are and nobody knows what they are doing at this stage.”

Asked to comment on Negraponte’s charge that Al Qaeda was being protected in Pakistan, Aziz replied, “We totally reject this charge. Pakistan has done more for fighting terrorism than anybody else. This is because of conviction of our government that terrorism is no solution to any problem. We are committed to fighting terrorism because it is in our national interest and we want to be a part of the coalition in the whole world which is fighting this scourge. We will continue to do so and any aspersions or any doubts about Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism, we totally reject because the world knows how much we have done. We live in a neighbourhood where there is a lot of activity which is prejudicial to our own security. There is huge narcotics and drug production. There are safe havens for terrorists. There are all sorts of actions going on. Pakistan has suffered as a result, but we have taken measures to fight terrorism, oppose and confront people who are destabilising the region and we will continue to do so because this is our national policy.”

Asked if Pakistan has provided the Taliban “secure hideouts” in the tribal areas as Negraponte charged, Aziz answered, “On the issue of the tribal areas and people going back and forth in Afghanistan, we have increased patrolling and now we are talking of protecting the border further through fencing, mining or other techniques, so we don’t want people to come and use Pakistan as a safe haven. We have had several such people arrested and turned over to the relevant country. We will continue to do so.”

Blitzer asked Aziz to comment on a Karzai statement that said Pakistan wants to “make slaves out of us”, to which the he replied that after this statement by Karzai, he had visited Kabul and held discussions with the Afghan leader. He added, “We are not an aid-giving country but for Afghanistan, we have so far extended a quarter of a billion dollars. When I was in Kabul (we gave) another $50 million of assistance. We want Afghanistan to develop, the people there to have a better life and to control narcotics and drug production. The nexus between drug production and terrorism is very dangerous. We also appeal to the world community to give more money and have a Marshall Plan type of plan for Afghanistan so that people have a sense of a better future. People don’t feel despondent. People don’t feel deprived. The faster the Afghan army trains and expands and patrols its borders in its territory, we will have peace there.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\01\15\story_15-1-2007_pg7_22