Army confirms operation against banned organizations

Islamabad, Dec.9 (ANI): The Pakistan army confirmed late on Monday it has begun an operation against banned organizations in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai last month, but did not name any organizations.

"There have been arrests and investigations are ongoing," the Daily Times quoted a statement released by the ISPR, as saying.

The ISPR said that further details of the operations would be released once preliminary investigations had been completed.

The White House said on Monday that Pakistan has taken "some positive steps" since the terrorist strikes in Mumbai but called for continued co-operation with India and the United States to thwart possible follow-on attacks.

Meanwhile in Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reiterated that the world must accept that Pakistan itself has been suffering at the hands of extremism.

In a long interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Rice emphasized that the Pakistani government is committed to dealing with terrorists, "but we are awaiting action, and that action needs to take place soon".

Asked if the civilian government had complete control, Rice replied, "We treat the Pakistani Government as an integrated and unified government, and I heard nothing in Pakistan that suggested that there were divisions in this regard between the army and the government."

"This is an elected civilian government; it has a kind of legitimacy that a Pakistani government has not had since 1999. And I believe that it is in actually a stronger position because of that to act," she added.

Rice said there are some 'concrete steps' that Pakistan needs to take "urgently, quite aside from a lot of restructuring that is going to have to be done".

She said the US is sharing information and working with both Pakistan and India. (ANI)