Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said in a CNN interview on Sunday that Pakistan is on the frontline in the war on terrorism and is capable of doing an effective job in the restive tribal areas where some US officials, backed by the US media, have been recommending direct and unilateral US military action.He told Wolf Blitzer from Lahore that Pakistan has one of the world’s largest and most experienced armies, which is best equipped to deal with the situation. He expressed Pakistan’s resentment at being constantly targeted in the American media for not doing enough. He recounted the heavy casualties that Pakistan’s security forces have suffered, and complained that these sacrifices have been downplayed or have gone unacknowledged in the American media. He said Pakistan “resents” the “tone” of criticism that is levelled at it from the US, despite all that it has done, and is doing, in fighting terrorism and extremism.
Kasuri said he would like to see the US media accord just one-tenth of the coverage to Pakistan’s sacrifices that it does to the performance of US troops in Iraq. Asked for his reaction to a senior US official’s recent statement that Washington might strike areas in Pakistan in the hunt for Al Qaeda, Kasuri said if the US has hard, “actionable intelligence” on Al Qaeda in areas under Pakistan’s control, it should provide such intelligence to Pakistan, which will do what’s necessary. He did not, however, reject the idea of US operations in Pakistan with or without Pakistan’s consent.
Agencies add: Appearing on CNN’s ‘Late Edition’, Kasuri criticised talk of US forces attacking Al Qaeda on Pakistani territory, warning that any incursion would alienate opinion in the predominantly Muslim US ally against terrorism. “We are committed to controlling terrorism, and people in Pakistan get very upset when despite all the sacrifices that Pakistan has been making you get all these criticisms” in the press, he said.
Part of the National Intelligence Estimate made public last week found a “persistent and evolving” threat to the United States from Islamic militant groups, especially Al Qaeda, which is said has become entrenched in Pakistan’s tribal region near Afghanistan. US President George W Bush, in his taped weekly radio address on Saturday, said the report’s assessment that Al Qaeda was gaining strength in the tribal region of Pakistan was “one of the most troubling”.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a staunch critic of Bush’s war in Iraq, told CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ that, “I don’t think we should take anything off the table. Wherever we find these evil people, we should go get them.”
Kasuri, however, maintained that a US raid into Pakistan would be a mistake. “When you talk of going after targets, you will lose the battle for hearts and minds,” he said. “The Pakistan Army can do the job much better,” he added. The Pakistan Army said on Sunday that security forces killed six pro-Taliban militants in fighting in North Waziristan, after overnight battles left 13 rebels dead.