Musharraf warns US of entering Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf warned US troops would be regarded as invaders if they crossed into Pakistan to hunt Al Qaeda militants and said he would resign if opposition parties tried to impeach him after next month’s elections.
Musharraf’s remarks in an interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times published Friday came as police tried to identify a suicide bomber who struck a day earlier in Lahore, killing 24 people and adding to pressure on the former general as he struggles to stay in office eight years after seizing power in military coup.
Pakistan is under growing US pressure to crack down on militants in its tribal regions close to the Afghan border. The rugged area has long been considered a likely hiding place for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman Al Zawahri, as well as an operating ground for Taleban militants planning attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported last week that Washington was considering expanding the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the US military to launch aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions. Several US presidential candidates have also hinted they would support unilateral action in the area.
Musharraf told The Straits Times US troops would certainly’ be considered invaders if they set foot in the tribal regions. A full transcript of the interview was published on the paper’s Web site.
If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains. They would regret that day,’ he said in the interview in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Musharraf is also under gathering domestic political pressure.The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the other main opposition grouping are predicted to make gains in the Feb. 18 polls. They have vowed to oust Musharraf if they emerge as winners. Musharraf is seen as vulnerable to impeachment over his decision to fire Supreme Court judges and suspend the constitution last year.
Musharraf’s remarks in an interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times published Friday came as police tried to identify a suicide bomber who struck a day earlier in Lahore, killing 24 people and adding to pressure on the former general as he struggles to stay in office eight years after seizing power in military coup.
Pakistan is under growing US pressure to crack down on militants in its tribal regions close to the Afghan border. The rugged area has long been considered a likely hiding place for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman Al Zawahri, as well as an operating ground for Taleban militants planning attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported last week that Washington was considering expanding the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the US military to launch aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions. Several US presidential candidates have also hinted they would support unilateral action in the area.
Musharraf told The Straits Times US troops would certainly’ be considered invaders if they set foot in the tribal regions. A full transcript of the interview was published on the paper’s Web site.
If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains. They would regret that day,’ he said in the interview in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Musharraf is also under gathering domestic political pressure.The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the other main opposition grouping are predicted to make gains in the Feb. 18 polls. They have vowed to oust Musharraf if they emerge as winners. Musharraf is seen as vulnerable to impeachment over his decision to fire Supreme Court judges and suspend the constitution last year.
If that (impeachment) happens, let me assure that I’d be leaving office before they would do anything. If they won with this kind of majority and they formed a government that had the intention of doing this, I wouldn’t like to stick around,’ he said. I would like to quit the scene.
Thursday’s blast targeting police officers outside the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore was the latest in a series of bloody attacks in the country. At least 20 suicide bombers have struck in the past three months, killing 400 people, many of them from the security forces _ the most intense period of terror strikes here since Pakistan allied with the US in its war against Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in 2001.
Lahore police chief investigator Tasaddaq Hussain said the mutilated head of the suicide bomber had been recovered and would be reconstructed for identification. The bomber’s other body parts were being examined by forensic experts to extract DNA, he said. This is an act of terrorism and militants are to be blamed for it,’ Hussain said.Later, about 200 lawyers prayed for the victims outside the court and laid flowers at the scene.
Police said the attacker was amid some 70 officers in riot gear and detonated explosives on his body, spewing shrapnel in a blast that sprawled mangled bodies in pools of blood. All but three of the dead were police officers. There was no claim of responsibility. The government has blamed previous attacks on Islamic radicals allied with Al Qaeda and the Taleban sheltering in the tribal regions along the Afghan border.
Musharraf blamed the same militants for the Dec. 27 gun-and-suicide-bomb attack that killed Bhutto, a secular former prime minister who had repeatedly pledged to battle Islamic extremism in this country of 160 million people.
Bhutto’s supporters have questioned whether elements within the government may have had a role in the opposition leader’s slaying after a campaign rally, and are demanding an independent UN investigation. To allay critics, Musharraf last week invited British police to help investigate the attack.
Quoted from : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayA...n=subcontinent
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 US incursion to be treated as invasion, warns Musharraf President Pervez Musharraf warned that US troops would be regarded as invaders if they crossed into Pakistan to hunt the al-Qaeda militants and said he would resign if opposition parties tried to impeach him after the next month’s elections. The president said this in an interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times published on Friday. Asked if a unilateral intervention would be seen as an invasion, Musharraf replied: “Certainly. If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan.” “But when you’re talking about Osama bin Laden, any action against him will be free, if we know where he is, if we have good intelligence,” he added. “The methodology will be discussed together and we’ll attack the target together.” But Musharraf said the US army would not do a better job. “The United States seems to think that what our army cannot do, they can do, this is a very wrong perception,” Musharraf said. “I challenge anybody to come into our mountains. They would regret that day. It’s not easy there.” Musharraf also criticised US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s proposal to deploy a US, and possibly a British, team to safeguard Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Her statement, Musharraf said, was an “intrusion into our privacy, into our sensitivity ... She doesn’t seem to understand how well-guarded these assets are.” Pakistan is under growing US pressure to crack down on militants in its tribal regions close to the Afghan border. The New York Times reported last week that Washington was considering expanding the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the US military to launch aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions. Several US presidential candidates have also hinted they would support unilateral action in the area. The president said US troops would “certainly” be considered invaders if they set foot in the tribal regions. A full transcript of the interview was published on the paper’s website. “If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains. They would regret that day,” he said in the interview in Rawalpindi. Musharraf is also under gathering domestic political pressure. “If that (impeachment) happens, let me assure that I’d be leaving office before they would do anything. If they won with this kind of majority and they formed a government that had the intention of doing this, I wouldn’t like to stick around,” he said. “I would like to quit the scene.” |
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