Sharif under fire for 'helping' USA

ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (PTI, UNI) — The Pakistan Government today came under mounting criticism from various quarters in the country for allegedly assisting the USA to launch missile attacks on Afghanistan, but the Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, termed the charges as "false and baseless".

A former Pakistani army chief, Mirza Aslam Beg, today accused the Sharif Government of allowing a US spy team in Pakistan to identify Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden’s alleged bases in Afghanistan and provide "terminal guidance" for the strikes.

"It is impossible to bomb specific targets without the cooperation of the incumbent government," General Beg, who now heads Awami Qiadat Party, told a private news agency.

A former ISI chief, Gen Hamid Gul, claimed that being a professional intelligence man the Pakistani authorities could not fool him by claiming that the country’s territorial waters and air space was not violated in the US attacks on Afghanistan.

General Gul also asked the Pakistan Government to demand an unconditional apology from the USA for using the country’s territorial waters to launch a missile attack on Afghanistan, failing which Islamabad should sever all diplomatic ties with Washington.

Mr Sharif has, however, denied that Pakistani territory was allowed to be used for Thursday's US missile attacks on Afghanistan, and, in a bid to ward off mounting domestic criticism on the issue, promised to get a permanent seat in the UN Security Council for the country.

Addressing workers of his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) in Lahore yesterday, Mr Sharif came down heavily on political parties and groups which are accusing the government of conniving with the USA for the missile attacks on alleged terrorist training camps of Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, media reports said today.

The former army chief said the cruise missiles were fired from the American fleet in the Arabian Sea and it violated about 1200 km of Pakistani air space.

General Beg also claimed that an American spy plane, P-3 Orion, also flew over Pakistan, providing "mid-course guidance" to the cruise missile attack.

"If Nawaz Sharif claims that his government had not allowed its soil for US strikes, then how the Tomahawk missiles were guided to hit the specific targets in Afghanistan’s mountainous area," General Beg asked.

General Gul, talking to newsmen here last evening, also said that, "they (USA) have committed aggression against our territory" and threatened to file a case against the US Administration for killing several Pakistanis in the attack.

He also expressed surprise at the Pakistani claim that they had arrested an Arab national, Sadiq Howaida, from Karachi airport and that he was a trained terrorist and was behind the bombings of US embassies in East Africa.

Claiming that was also speaking on behalf of the 2.2 million Pakistan’s ex-servicemen, the former director-general of the ISI asked the Pakistan Government to demand an unconditional apology and also compensation from the US Administration for killing the Pakistanis.

Islamabad should also immediately close down joint exercises with the US armed forces, he said.

He further alleged that the bombings of US embassies in East Africa, in retaliation of which the US launched aerial attacks on bin Laden’s alleged bases in Afghanistan, was actually the handiwork of Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

Describing bin Laden as a ‘mujahid’ (religious crusader) and not a terrorist, the former ISI chief dismissed the US allegations that Laden was behind the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

WASHINGTON: The USA has warned countries 'sponsoring' or 'supporting' terrorism that its missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan were part of a long-term strategy and might be repeated time and again if found necessary.

The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, said in an article published in the Washington Post today, "The US strikes against terrorist facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan should not be seen simply as a response to the August 7 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, but as the long-term, fundamental way in which the USA intends to combat the forces of terror."

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has urged the international community to devise appropriate legal measures to eradicate all forms of terrorism and bring terrorists to justice through the United Nations Security Council.

The UAE Foreign Ministry said it condemned all forms of terrorism and stressed that Islam also rejected all such acts.

The statement came in the wake of Thursday’s military strikes by the USA against ‘terrorism-related’ sites in Afghanistan and Sudan after the August 7 bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"Recent developments underline the necessity for the international community to make joint and concerted moves through the UN Security Council to curb terrorism, and to identify those countries which are responsible for providing facilities to terrorist elements and their organisations," the ministry spokesman said.

SYDNEY: Pakistan’s intelligence agency is primarily responsible for encouraging terrorism inside Afghanistan, and the Afghan people were not to blame for the US Embassy bombings this month, Afghanistan’s Honorary Consul to Australia , Mr Mahmood Saikal, said on Sunday, according to a DPA report.

"We believe the time has come that the CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency) should sit down with the Inter-Service Intelligence directorate (ISI) of Pakistan and question the ISI for nurturing terrorism inside Afghanistan," Mr Saikal said.

"The mother of the problem is the existence of the ISI of Pakistan," he told newsmen.

Mr Saikal said the USA should direct its attention to Pakistan and not the Afghan people. He said Pakistan’s involvement was proved by the death of at least seven Pakistanis during US missile strikes this week.

"This revelation once again confirmed who is really behind the orchestration of the so-called terrorism fiasco," he said.

QUETTA: According to an AFP report, an unexploded missile carrying US markings has been found in a remote part of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, officials said here on Sunday.

"It bears US markings and is believed to be a cruise missile," said a senior official, who did not want to be named.

The missile is lying about 10 km from a dusty township called Kharan near where Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests in May, the official said.

The projectile was found on Saturday, two days after the USA fired cruise missiles at alleged terrorist targets in Afghanistan.

The news reached here late because the Kharan area is far from the provincial capital Quetta.

Pakistan fires IB chief over faux pas

ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (DPA, PTI) — Two senior Pakistani officials were sacked yesterday for wrongly stating that five Pakistanis were killed in the US bombing raid two days ago on targets in the neighbouring Afghanistan, NNI news agency reported.

Their information had prompted Pakistan yesterday to claim that a US missile landed on its soil in the US strike, killing five persons.

However, hours later the government retracted the claim, saying that it was based on "incorrect information".

NNI said Pakistani premier Muhammad Nawaz Sharif fired the two — the Director-General of the country's top civilian internal security service, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the administrative head of its northwestern province which borders on Afghanistan.

An official statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said Mr Sharif told US President Bill Clinton over phone on Friday evening that the American action was "a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of independent states".

The Foreign Ministry's statement also claimed that the confusion over the killings of Pakistani nationals arose due to an unclear demarcation of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It further said, "the missile was reported to have landed in Zhavar area near the Pakistani border village of Saidgi but actually fell outside the territory of Pakistan".

Foreign office spokesman Tariq Altaf told newsmen that six Pakistani nationals were killed when a US missile landed in the Pakistani territory.

How Laden escaped US attack

LONDON, Aug 23 (PTI) — American intelligence tracking Osama bin Laden through his satellite telephone "lost" the Saudi dissident, the main target of Thursday’s attacks on Afghanistan, when he switched off the instrument just before the missiles were launched, it was reported here today.

The location of bin Laden, whom the US blames as the brain behind the August 7 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, was known to the American operatives, tracking his Inmarsat telephone, to an accuracy of 10 metres, the Sunday Times said.

However, Laden suspected imminent attacks on his Khost camp and handed over his satellite phone to an associate before leaving the area to be defended by some of his "ultra loyalist" followers, all of whom died in the strikes.

Congress flays US action

NEW DELHI, Aug 23 (UNI) — The Congress today deplored the missile strike by the USA on Sudan and Afghanistan as it violated sovereignty and integrity of the states concerned.

In a statement, it said respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each nation was a well-established practice.

However, the party "unequivocally and strongly" condemned international terrorism and urge for collective international action to put an end to this evil.

The statement said the growing menace of cross-border terrorism was a real threat to world peace and security in the post-cold war era. India had for long been a victim of cross-border terrorism.

"We have been urging the international community to take up this issue and launch a collective action against international terrorism. Has India's demand for a special session of the UN to deal with international terrorism been accepted, the world community would have by now evolved a common strategy to deal with this menace," it added.