Pakistan is not doing enough to help root out Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders who have found safe haven in its lawless tribal lands along the Afghan border, a senior US security official said on Saturday. Most Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably on the Pakistan side of the border, said Henry Crumpton, State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism. Pakistan, a vital US security ally, has arrested hundreds of Al Qaeda members and lost hundreds of its troops battling militants. But Afghan officials have complained insurgents were able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory. Violence has intensified in parts of Afghanistan in recent months to its worst level since US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. “Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is ‘no’,” Crumpton told a news briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul. “Not only Al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that,” Crumpton added.
It is totally absurd: ISPR
Pakistan army spokesman dismisses as “absurd” a statement by US counter-terrorism envoy that Pakistan is not doing enough to arrest Islamic militants. “It is totally absurd,” Major General Shaukat Sultan, the chief of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said on Saturday. “No one has conveyed this thing to Pakistan, and if someone claims so, it is absurd,” he said. Also, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao rejected a statement by Henry Campton regarding presence of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and said that Islamabad would take action if it had any information about the presence of Qaeda or Taliban remnants. Talking to a private TV channel late on Saturday, Sherpao expressed wonder over the statement by Campton with regard to Pakistan’s role in the war on terrorism. 