Minister slams US general’s Taleban remark

islamabad — Pakistan’s leadership has slammed the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John W. Nicholson, a day after he claimed that Washington “knows the Afghan Taleban leadership is in Quetta and Peshawar”.

Turning the tables, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Dawn newspaper that the “Taleban were using Afghanistan as the launch pad for their operations, both inside and outside Pakistan”.

He said the Taleban had no need to hide in Pakistan, since they held more than 40 per cent of Afghanistan, the daily reported on Monday.

“If they have control over so much land and resources in Afghanistan, it means they have hideouts there, not in Pakistan,” Iqbal said.

Nicholson told Kabul’s Tolo News on Saturday that Washington was aware of the Afghan Taleban leadership’s presence in the two Pakistani cities, adding that the US military would continue to put pressure on Taleban sanctuaries inside and outside Afghanistan.

Iqbal said Pakistani authorities had been conducting comprehensive security operations in different parts of the country for four years and had cleared a large area, including North Waziristan. “Pakistan is fully committed to rooting out terrorism and no other country can match us in terms of the number of sacrifices made in the war on terror,” he added. —