International   

Bush raises infiltration issue with Musharraf

B. Muralidhar Reddy

We have given a comprehensive and telling response: Kasuri

ISLAMABAD: United States President George W. Bush raised the issue of cross-border infiltration from Pakistan during his talks with its President Pervez Musharraf here on Saturday.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told a news conference: "Yes he did raise it. Let me inform you that it was met with a comprehensive and telling response from President Musharraf,"

A visibly upset Mr. Kasuri told an American journalist that there was a lot of "misinformation" in the Western media on cross-border infiltration and appealed to him to reflect the Pakistani perspective on the subject. The Minister said Pakistan tried to explain why certain news could not be trusted without taking into account the motivating factors.

Mr. Kasuri said despite the presence of 1.7 lakh American troops in Iraq bomb blasts and violence occurred every day. But this did not mean the U.S. was not sincere about catching the culprits. Similarly, despite the presence of 17,000 American and NATO troops in Afghanistan and an additional 19,000 Afghan troops, terrorism persisted.

"We have deployed 80,000 on our Afghan border. It is way above the combined strength of the American, NATO and Afghan forces. Have you been successful in Afghanistan? We must understand there are people out there ready to die for a cause. What is required is a political and military approach to tackle the issue." Replying to a question, at a joint press conference with Gen. Musharraf, Mr. Bush said "a lot of work" had to be done by Pakistan to defeat Al-Qaeda.

"The President [Musharraf] and I know that. We spent a good while this morning talking about the work that needs to be done. The best way to defeat Al-Qaeda is to find, is to share good intelligence to locate them, and then to be prepared to bring them to justice. So, one, the first question that I always ask is whether or not our intelligence sharing is good enough, and we're working on it to make sure it's good enough. Intelligence is gathered in a lot of different ways but the key thing is that, one, it be actionable, and two, it be shared on a real-time basis.

"Secondly, in order for Pakistan to defend herself from Al-Qaeda, she must have equipment necessary to move quickly, without tipping off the enemy. The President is training Special Forces teams to do just that. And so while we do have a lot of work to be done, it's important that we stay on the hunt. Part of my mission today was to determine whether or not the President is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice, and he is. He understands the stakes; he understands the responsibility; and he understands the need to make sure our strategy is able to defeat the enemy."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Bush raises infiltration issue with Musharraf
Nambiar is Annan adviser
Hundreds held in Pakistan to foil protests against Bush visit
U.S. reveals names of detenus
Russia happy with talks
SMS-based warning
U.K. Minister leaves husband over bribery allegations
Millions found in raid
Speculation over Musharraf, Aziz not receiving Bush
Reference to Kashmir avoided

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu