Islamabad, December 11: Pakistan has rejected reports claiming the al-Qaeda leadership is “definitely” hiding in the country’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
“Even US leaders have lately accepted that we do not know about the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leadership and we have seen statements to this effect,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said on Thursday.
“So, I think, we come down to the same point that, had we known the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leadership, we would have addressed this particular issue long ago.”
The Pakistani official was reacting to statements by a senior US diplomat, who claimed that the al-Qaeda leadership is in Pakistan’s border region.
The top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden was not in Afghanistan. Prior to Gen. McChrystal’s comments, US Consul General in Peshawar Candace Putnam had said that the al-Qaeda leader was in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani official maintained that Islamabad has no knowledge about bin Laden.
“There is no credible information or intelligence about the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leadership and according to our information, our intelligence reports they are not in Pakistan,” Basit said.
He also rejected any foreign assistance in carrying out operations against militants, saying the Pakistani army is capable of taking over such operations on itself.
“This is one of our red lines, and there is simply no question of any hot pursuit. Pakistan’s armed forces are capable of undertaking operations against militants and terrorists on their own and we do not really need any assistance in this regard,” the spokesman concluded.
—–Agencies