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US ambassador urges Pakistani crackdown on Taliban
Senior Taliban are still plotting attacks on Afghan and US targets from safe havens in Pakistan, the US ambassador in Kabul said on Sunday, urging Islamabad to clamp down on Taliban fugitives, as well as Al Qaeda leaders. âWe know several key Taliban figures are there and there is some sense that some of the remaining Al Qaeda leaders are in the border area on the other side,â Zalmay Khalizad said. âIt doesnât serve Pakistanâs interest for them to operate in Pakistan and to come across and attack Afghanistan or the coalition forces here,â Khalizad said in an interview. Khalizad said the US was âvery encouragedâ by an ongoing Pakistani offensive against hundreds of foreign fighters and allied Afghan tribesmen in villages in South Waziristan. Khalizad also cited a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai late last year that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar had been spotted in a mosque of Quetta.Pakistan on Sunday denied that its security forces were allowing men to cross its border with Afghanistan unchecked. Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that Pakistani paramilitary rangers and troops were alert and guarding the border to prevent any âmiscreantsâ from crossing illegally. He said guards might allow local tribesmen they recognize to cross to visit relatives. âThere are many tribes near the Pakistan-Afghan border. People belonging to these tribes are usually not discouraged by the government from visiting their relatives,â he said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-21 |
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