Pakistan has "broken the back" of al-Qaida by dismantling its network and arresting hundreds of suspects, a top government official said Saturday. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao's comments came two days after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Pakistani security forces had destroyed al-Qaida-linked militants' "sanctuaries and communication systems" along the border with Afghanistan. However, Musharraf said Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism, still had no clue about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.
"The remnants of al-Qaida are on the run. Their network is no more in tact. They are scattered and not in a position to even plan attacks," Sherpao said in this northwestern border city. "The al-Qaida leadership is no more effective." Pakistan has arrested more than 700 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks, including top leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured near the capital, Islamabad, in March 2003. Sherpao said Pakistani security agencies had recently arrested more terror suspects, but he gave no details. The majority of the suspects were later handed over to the U.S. officials. In July 2004, police arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect on the FBI list of most-wanted terrorists for his alleged role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in east Africa that killed more than 200 people, in the eastern city of Gujrat. In March 2002, authorities nabbed Abu Zubaydah, once bin Laden's top terror coordinator, in Faisalabad. |