Pakistani help crucial to win Afghan war: Mush

Abu Dhabi, Jan 24: President Pervez Musharraf today dismissed allegations that Pakistani officials were sheltering the head of the Taliban, and said the US-led war in Afghanistan could not be won without Pakistan's help.

U.S. ally Pakistan has come under increasing pressure from American and Afghan officials to do more in the fight against Islamist insurgents who have stepped up attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

''The fight against terrorism and extremism, whether it is al Qaeda or Taliban, can never succeed without Pakistan's cooperation and Pakistan is the only country that has delivered the maximum on both,'' Musharraf told a news conference in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

''We are tackling them with 30,000 troops,'' Musharraf said.

''If there is anybody who is not doing enough, it is others who are not doing enough.'' Ending a West Asia tour that included Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan, Musharraf said Pakistan was doing more than any other nation in fighting terrorism and it had lost more than 600 people in the fighting.

US intelligence chief John Negroponte, in a testimony to a Senate committee earlier this month, wrote that al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hide-out in Pakistan, without naming Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

Afghan officials released a video last week in which captured Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was living in the Pakistani city of Quetta under the protection of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service.

Hanif said former ISI chief Hamid Gul was organising the training of suicide bombers at a religious school in Pakistan.

Asked about Mullah Omar's presence in Quetta, Musharraf mocked the report, saying it was ''simply preposterous. Whoever is saying that...let me take him in my aircraft. Let's go and catch him. I will try to catch him myself''.

He said Mullah Omar was last in Pakistan when he was 16 years old, as a student at a Pakistani madrasa, or religious school.

''Since then he had never, repeat never, repeat never come to Pakistan,'' Musharraf said. ''In 1995.. he created Taliban, since then till now he has never come to Pakistan.

''Kandahar is his operating base and he operates from there.'' However, Musharraf acknowledged that insurgents were getting support from some people in Pakistan.

''The trouble lies in Afghanistan and the solution lies in Afghanistan,'' he said.

REUTERS

Related Stories

>