Osama and Al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan: Rehman Malik
Pakistan
Osama and Al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan: Rehman Malik
Interior Minister Rehman Malik termed the continuous US drones attacks inside tribal areas as futile and a mere waste of time, as the Al-Qaeda leadership was on the other side of the border in eastern Afghanistan. In an interview with a British Newspaper, he brushed aside the claims of CIA officials that drone attacks have been highly effective in disrupting Al Qaedas ability to operate. Theyre getting mid-level people, not big fish, he said. And they are counterproductive because they are killing civilians and turning locals against our government. We try to win peoples hearts, then one drone attack drives them away. One attack alone last week killed 50 people. Laden could not have escaped the Pakistan Army if he happened to be in the country, he added. If Osama was in Pakistan, we would know, with all the thousands of troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months, private TV channels quoted Malik, as saying. According to our information, Osama is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against Pakistan are being directed from Kunar, said Malik. For all Washingtons talk of an AfPak strategy, he said, Pakistans efforts to take on the Taliban their side of the border are being hampered by the failure of American and British troops in Afghanistan to monitor their side. He argued that Nato troops in Afghanistan should have first sealed the border before stepping up the fighting. If we cant seal it totally we should seal it as much as possible, he said. If we cant have a wall, at least lets put up barbed wire. They should replicate what weve done, he added. We have 1,000 checkpoints on our side - they have only 100, of which only 60 are working. It makes no sense to both be fighting either side of the border without stopping the militants crossing.
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