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“Terrorist networks have safe haven in Pakistan”

Washington: All major terrorist networks have a safe haven in Pakistan to operate creating a big “problem” to the U.S. war against terror, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

“I think it’s the safe haven on the Pakistani side of the border, not just for Al-Qaeda but for the Taliban, for the Hakani network, for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other affiliated groups that are all working together — they’re separate groups, but they’re all working together, and I think as long as they have a safe haven to operate there, it’s going to be a problem for us,” Mr. Gates told the MSNBC in an interview.

“Afghanistan, after all, 20 years ago I was on the other side of that border as deputy director of CIA fighting the Soviets, and we had the safe haven in Pakistan, and let me tell you, it made a big difference,” he said in his interview on Sunday.

Mr. Gates, who met with Pakistani Army Chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani last week in Washington, said the Pakistan leadership now knew that what was going on in their tribal region was very dangerous for their country. “I believe, based on my talks with the Pakistanis here in Washington this past week, that they clearly now understand that what’s going on up there in that border area is as big a risk to the stability of Pakistan as it is a problem for us in Afghanistan.”

He said Afghanistan was now unlikely to be a safe haven for the terrorists as long as the U.S. and its allied forces were in the country.

“Well, as long as we’re in Afghanistan and as long as the Afghan government has the support of dozens and dozens of countries who are providing military support, civilian support, in addition to us, we are providing a level of stability in Afghanistan that at least prevents it from being a safe haven…,” he said. — PTI

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