Chaman, October 02: Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar is in Pakistan and the United States is saying it is only there to justify an extension of its drone missile attack, a Taliban commander said Wednesday.
A U.S. newspaper said this week U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ability of Omar and his lieutenants to launch attacks into Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Pakistan has always denied that Omar or any of its commanders are based in Pakistan, but failed to dispel suspicions in Washington and Kabul.
A Taliban commander, Hayatullah Khan told a news agency by telephone that the entire Taliban leadership was in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan is not safe for us. Most of our people have been arrested in Pakistan than in Afghanistan for everyone here, including Mullah Omar,” said Khan, who said he was speaking from Afghanistan, though he declined to be specific.
“Americans are doing the Quetta shura an excuse for an expansion of its drone strikes in Balochistan, nothing more,” said Khan, referring to the southwestern province of which Quetta is the capital, which borders southern Afghanistan.
U.S. Ambassador in Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson said in an interview with the Quetta shura was “high on the list of Washington.”
–Agencies