WASHINGTON, Dec 16: Pakistan’s ambassador acknowledged on Thursday that “remnants” of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants continue to operate in Afghanistan and his country’s border, but insisted they are not resurging significantly. In an interview with Reuters, Jehangir Karamat said Osama bin Laden has lost effectiveness, that his Al Qaeda organization has no overarching leadership capable of directing attacks worldwide and that it would be unwise to become “obsessed” with capturing the Islamist militant who directed the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.
Four years after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban, Afghanistan is still troubled by a Taliban-led Islamist militant insurgency and the country has seen a spate of suicide attacks in recent weeks.
In addition, there are media reports that Pakistan’s rugged Waziristan region along the Afghan border may be slipping back into the hands of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, despite the presence of some 60,000 Pakistani troops.
In Afghanistan, “these are dissidents, political outsiders, some remnants of the Taliban on the run who are carrying out these episodic periodic attacks (but it is a) transient tactical phenomenon” that will end when the country stabilizes, Mr Karamat said.
“I think there is no large-scale organized Taliban presence anywhere” in Afghanistan and the overall outlook is “excellent,” said Karamat, former chairman of Pakistan’s joint chiefs of staff and chief of army staff.
UNREST: As for Waziristan, Karamat said Islamabad was vigorously working to keep the region under control with the border “strongly defended on both sides with no chance of any alien presence there.”
Mr Karamat said he did not know the status of Osama — widely believed hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border — but “I don’t think he’s effective (and) I don’t think there is an overarching leadership that is directing operations worldwide.”
Recent edicts and tapes issued in al Qaeda’s name are “a ploy to give an impression that there is overall control, guidance and direction” to the group’s activities, he said.
Mr Karamat said efforts are still under way to find Osama but “we shouldn’t be obsessed with that” because it would divert attention from other anti-terror war operations.
He said Pakistan continues to press the Bush administration for the opportunity to negotiate the same kind of civilian nuclear cooperation agreement reached in July with India, even though senior U.S. officials have publicly ruled out this possibility.—Reuters
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