ISLAMABAD, 25 May 2004 — Pakistan’s president claimed yesterday that a top terror suspect responsible for several attacks in China has been killed by Pakistani security forces in the northwestern tribal region.

“He was one of the most wanted terrorists in China. He was killed here,” President Pervez Musharraf told a televised gathering of students in Islamabad.

Musharraf did not identify the suspected terrorist or say precisely when or where he was killed.

Pakistan’s army killed dozens of suspected terrorists, including foreigners, in an operation two months ago in Wana, a district of the South Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

The rugged area is believed to provide refuge to Al-Qaeda fighters — possibly including leader Osama Bin Laden — after the Taleban regime that hosted them in neighboring Afghanistan was toppled by a US-led military campaign in late 2001.

None of the identities of foreigners killed in the March operation have been revealed, but none was believed to be a main Al-Qaeda leader. Forty-eight Pakistani troops died.

Security forces arrested 163 suspects, many of them local tribesmen who were subsequently freed. But officials said that others included Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from southwestern China.

Wary of further casualties, the Pakistani government has since been working through tribal intermediaries to get low-level Al-Qaeda and Taleban fugitives to accept an amnesty and lay down arms. In return, they would be allowed to stay in the tribal regions.

No foreigners have accepted the offer. Musharraf said yesterday that the Pakistani Army remains present in South Waziristan and warned that the fugitives would be eliminated if they do not surrender.

“I know that Al-Qaeda people are hiding there,” Musharraf said. “I am 500 percent certain.”

Musharraf said that Al-Qaeda fugitives were behind almost all acts of terrorism in Pakistan, including two attempts to assassinate him in December.

Musharraf Appreciates New Indian PM Manmohan’s ‘Positive Message’

President Musharraf yesterday said he received a telephone call on Sunday from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that conveyed an “extremely positive message” of mending fences with Pakistan.

Musharraf told the convention in Islamabad that Manmohan called him unannounced and during the 30-minute conversation he expressed the desire to have excellent relations with Pakistan.

“It was an extremely positive message that he gave to me. He (Manmohan) showed complete desire to resolve all disputes and to have excellent relations with Pakistan,” Musharraf said.

Musharraf said Pakistan reciprocates the feelings of the Indian prime minister.

The president said he will also possibly talk to Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress, by telephone sometime later in the day.

“This is the way forward, to resolve all our disputes... the core issue is Kashmir,” he added.

Pakistan and India are set to have a composite dialogue next month that will include the Kashmir problem.