KARACHI, 17 May 2005 — The recent capture of alleged Al-Qaeda No.3 Abu Faraj Al-Libbi has helped “break the back” of the group, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview to the Financial Times yesterday.
The paper yesterday published extracts from an online-interview with Musharraf in which he claimed that the arrest of Abu Faraj Al-Libbi had severed the links between the central command and members on the ground.
In his first interview since the arrest of Al-Qaeda’s senior leader, Musharraf said: “We have broken their back. They cease to exist as a cohesive, homogenous body under good command and control, vertical and horizontal.”
European security experts have been cautious about Al-Libbi’s importance in the network, but Musharraf maintained that his capture was “very significant” and that it had led to other key arrests in some Gulf countries.
“He is the man who was in charge of Al-Qaeda operations, internal and external and, of course, on a personal basis the man who masterminded the suicide attacks on me,” Musharraf, the target of two assassination attempts in December 2003, told the Financial Times.
“Whatever they are now capable of doing is individual and group actions divorced from central command and coordinated centrally. They are on the run in the mountains, not in contact with each other,” he added. However, Musharraf added, the arrest had failed to produce any clues to the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.
Meanwhile, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, Fazlur Rehman, said the war on terrorism is a “discriminatory tactic” being used to target religious organizations.
Stating that Islam was a moderate religion, Rehman dispelled any links between Islam and extremism. He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the South Asian Parliamentarians Conference organized by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) here Sunday.
“South Asian countries must forge their efforts to form a regional alliance,” Rehman said, reports Online news agency.
He said South Asian countries would have to strengthen democracy in their countries to solve regional issues and also develop human resources.
The South Asian Parliamentarians Conference would be supportive to achieve the common well being of the people of the region, he said.
Leader of the House, Waseem Sajjad, said there was a need to improve relations with the West and also to follow the European Parliament to strengthen the South Asian region’s parliamentary system.
National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, referring to the current talks between Pakistan and India on the Kashmir issue, said peace and security would return to the region only through dialogue.
He said the meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries’ speakers would be convened in Pakistan soon. — Additional input from agencies.
