PESHAWAR, 21 April 2005 — A senior Pakistani general criticized yesterday the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan for saying that Pakistan was planning a new offensive against militants along the border.
Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, who commands thousands of troops hunting Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions, described reported comments by US Lt. Gen. David Barno as a “highly irresponsible act on his part.”
Barno was quoted in Pakistani newspapers as saying Monday that Pakistan would soon begin an operation against militants in North Waziristan. “It is only speculation that terrorists are in North Waziristan. We are gathering intelligence but there is no report on the basis of which I can begin an operation,” Hussain told reporters in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“There is no organized base of terrorists. They are on the run. I will not let them reorganize,” Hussain said, a day after meeting in Peshawar with Barno, who commands the 17,000 US forces in Afghanistan and visited Pakistan this week.
On Tuesday, Pakistani Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan also rejected the reported statement by Barno, saying “we decide for ourselves what needs to be done, when and where.”
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism and has deployed tens of thousands of troops in its tribal regions along the Afghan border to track down militants and stop them infiltrating across the frontier.
Pakistan has often been criticized for allegedly failing to stop Taleban fighters from crossing from Pakistan to launch attacks in Afghanistan, but on Tuesday, Sultan said the US-led coalition forces should do more to stop Afghan militants from entering Pakistan.
Hussain said that due to the “lack of the writ” of Afghan law enforcement agencies on their side of the border, weapons were also being smuggled into Pakistan. He did not say who was using the smuggled weapons.
Last year, Pakistan fought Al-Qaeda linked militants in South Waziristan in lengthy operations that left hundreds of militants and soldiers dead and stirred domestic criticism of the government. Officials said the militants included Central Asians, Afghans, Arabs and Pakistanis.
EU Parliament Cancels Pakistani Talks
The European Parliament Brussels yesterday canceled talks with a delegation of Pakistani lawmakers to protest the inclusion of a pro-Taleban cleric and lawmaker.
British Labour member Neena Gill, who heads the European Union assembly’s South Asia interparliamentary committee, said talks were called off once they realized the Pakistani delegation included Maulana Samiul Haq, who is member of the Pakistani Senate or upper house of the Parliament in Islamabad.
Haq, who heads his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, is included among hard-line clerics who opposed the US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and organized protest rallies against these attacks.
“The European Parliament espouses the ideals of democracy, equality and human rights,” Gill said, adding that while the Parliament has members who represent “all shades of the political spectrum,” EU lawmakers could not accept the participation of Haq.
