Pakistan 'will capture Bin Laden' if he is found
Pakistan said today it will capture Osama bin Laden if he is found in the country, despite the government’s recent peace deal with Islamic militants in a remote, violence-battered region on the Afghan border.
“Pakistan is committed to its policy on the war on terror, and Osama caught anywhere in Pakistan would be brought to justice,” the country’s top army spokesman, Gen Shaukat Sultan, said
Militants – believed to support bin Laden’s al Qaida terror network and the Taliban militia – yesterday signed a peace deal with the government, aimed at ending years of violence in the rugged North Waziristan tribal area.
Some observers have expressed concerns that the pact could provide a haven for militant leaders like bin Laden, or that it proves the Pakistani military unable to crush an insurgency on its own soil.
“The military was not in a position to defeat the tribes,” said Pakistani political analyst Rusul Basksh Rais.
However, Pakistan’s Defence Minister’s office issued a statement Wednesday saying “Pakistan is on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his associates.”
“No amnesty has been granted to Osama bin Laden,” it said. “He is an international terrorist who is on the wanted list in Pakistan. He deserves no mercy.”
The statement said the army “will continue to operate against terrorists ... as long as the security situation demands.”
The army spokesman and defense minister’s office were both responding to an earlier ABC News report, citing Sultan as saying that bin Laden would not be taken into custody if he agreed to live peacefully in Pakistan.
The report, in which Sultan was questioned about both bin Laden and the peace deal, included a voice recording of Sultan saying that “as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody.”
A statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sultan was referring to the Waziristan peace deal and its implications for foreigners living in North Waziristan – not to bin Laden.
Sultan, responding to questions, had “stated that foreigners settled in the area would be allowed to stay there on the condition that they live peacefully and abide by law,” the ministry’s statement said. “At no stage during the conversation (did he say) this was applicable to Osama bin Laden.”
Officials have said foreigners living in North Waziristan include Afghans who settled in Pakistan after the anti-Soviet jihad, or holy war, in the 1980s, as well as Central Asians and Arabs.
Under the North Waziristan peace deal, militants are to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in the region and stop crossing into Afghanistan to attack US and Afghan forces hunting al-Qaida and Taliban.
Pakistani troops are to stop their hugely unpopular military campaign in the area, where more than of 350 soldiers have died, along with hundreds of militants and scores of civilians.
Authorities today returned 24 AK-47 rifles and eight pickup trucks that it had seized from militants during various operations in North Waziristan, and militants returned three rifles, as well as a number of soldiers’ caps and epaulets, an intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his work.
