 LAHORE: Prominent journalist Ahmad Rasheed said on Thursday that Taliban headquarters existed in Pakistan and retired intelligence officials including several retired Pakistan Army generals were still helping and supporting the militia and Al Qaeda.
| Tap... Tap... Must be something wrong with this thing... |
In an interview to BBC Hardtalk, the journalist said there was no doubt that the insurgency in Afghanistan was being supported from Pakistani territory, but denied that the Pakistani government was directly involved in it.
| Not directly, anyway. The denials are at least a little bit plausible... If you look at them just right. |
He said various elements in Pakistan including several religious parties, drug mafias and the transport mafia was supporting the insurgency. He also said the extremist religious parties governing two provinces bordering Afghanistan were supporting and helping the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
| Cheeze. Who'da ever thunkit? |
Asked why the Pakistani government had failed to eradicate extremist elements in the country, he said the government had not dealt strongly with extremist because there was a lack of will to do so for certain reasons.
| Starting with fear and running the entire gamut of emotion all the way to terror... |
Ahmad Rasheed said President Pervez Musharraf wanted to clamp down on extremist elements operating in Pakistan, but the Balochistan and NWFP governments were not cooperating with him fully.
The journalist said he had no idea where Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was, but suggested that he might be hiding somewhere on the Pak-Afghan border. He said Pakistan’s tribal areas supported Al Qaeda, which worried the military regime, but unfortunately the government had no political strategy to counter the threat. |