With the army claiming to have encircled Swat in order to cut off Taliban escape routes from the valley, President Asif Zardari on Friday said no time schedule could be given for ending the military operation in Swat.

Talking to TV anchors here, Zardari said there were no imminent plans to extend the operation to Waziristan but vowed to pursue the militants wherever the problem exists. He said he was misquoted during his US visit that Wazirstan is next in line for launching an operation. The report caused panic in the area as many people began to leave their homes.

The Pakistan President said the war against terrorism was always “our war” from day one. “The terrorists have been killing our people and our children”.

Zardari who earlier received briefing from army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani on the operation in Buner and Swat, said he was satisfied with the progress achieved so far. Kayani informed Zardari that the army was trying to encircle Swat to plug escape routes of the elusive militant guerrillas and that 80 per cent area of Buner has been cleared of the Taliban.

The President repudiated criticism that he spent three weeks abroad at a time of grave national crisis and said he had been successful in securing American aid. In Paris he got offer from France for cooperation in civilian nuclear technology.

He defended the transit trade memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Pakistan and Afghanistan during his visit to the US ostensibly brokered by the Obama administration. “It is a bilateral arrangement and India has nothing to do with it,” he remarked.

Zardari also dispelled apprehensions at home about US designs of Pakistan’s nuclear assets that remained a hot topic during his visit. “Our assets are not stocked in any farmhouse up for grab by anybody,” Zardari said.

He said the United States cannot abandon Pakistan as it did after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Referring to massive exodus of nearly 2 million people from the conflict zone in Swat, Zardari said the government is trying to overcome the challenge with international help. He said the people would have to make sacrifices in order to eliminate extremism and militancy. 

Colombo, May 22
A former Tamil Tiger leader who defected to become a Sri Lankan government minister has officially admitted that a significant numbers of civilians were killed during the final offensive against the rebels. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Colonel Karuna, told The Telegraph that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had made a mistake when he claimed no one had died at the hands of the army.

He said Tamil Tigers claims of 20,000 deaths were an overestimate, but added: “There are casualties, and we have to appreciate the casualties because without them you can’t rescue the people. They made a mistake. The president knows the damage.”

He said he did not know the exact numbers, but according to the United Nations between 8,000 and 10,000 civilians died in the Sri Lankan army advance across the north of the island between January and May.

Some are believed to have been shot by Tamil Tiger fighters as they tried to flee the battle zone, while many died in army mortar attacks.

“I feel very sad for the people of the north. They are Tamil people and [the Tamil Tigers] did very bad things to them. When civilians tried to escape, including children, they were shot,” he said. — ANI

Nineteen days after the Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman and PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned from the government, Parliament is going to elect senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal as new prime minister of Himalayan nation with a majority of the House on Saturday.

Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang on Friday announced the election schedule immediately after the outgoing Prime Minister Dahal addressed the House spiting venom against President Dr Ram Baran Yadav including political parties and international community that were stood against his unilateral move to sack the Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal.

The protracted parliament session was resumed today after the Maoists agreed to cease its ongoing protest disrupting the regular proceedings of the House.

According to the Parliamentary Secretariat, any interested candidate or party will have to file the nomination at the election committee chaired by Manohar Prasad Bhattarai, acting general secretary of Legislature-Parliament from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

While Nepal is certain to win, the Maoists are yet to decide whether to file a candidate or not. If they don’t the Speaker will allow the concerned lawmakers who have proposed and seconded the prime ministerial candidate to table the proposal. If they do, there will be vote.