09-07-2006, 12:46 AM
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--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> Pak offers 'peaceful' bin Laden safe haven
Chidanand Rajghatta
[ 7 Sep, 2006 0002hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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In Islamabad, Sultan later described the ABC report as "absolutely fabricated, absurd" and insisted he never said the remarks attibuted to him.
Indeed, it was unclear from his exchanges with ABC if bin Laden was the specific subject of discussion at that point in the interview, although Sultan broadly suggests that any terrorist who surrenders and forswears violence can stay in Pakistan.
Q. ABC News : If bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, they could stay?
A. Gen. Sultan: No one of that kind can stay. If someone is there he will have to surrender, he will have to live like a good citizen, his whereabouts, exit or travel would be known to the authorities.
Q. ABC News : So, he wouldn't be taken into custody? He would stay there?
A. Gen. Sultan: No, as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody. One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity.
Whether bin Laden-specific or not, Pakistan's hospitable remarks towards terrorists and its retreat from within its own territory on Tuesday came even as President Bush pledged to eliminate terror camps and help allies re-establish control over their own sovereign territories.
The amnesty offer was angrily denounced by analysts on television networks who suggested Pakistan is retreating from the war on terrorism.
The development also came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 when bin Laden suddenly appears to have made a comeback in US public discourse. Bush mentioned bin Laden 17 times in a speech on Tuesday on the war on terror, invoking his name alongside Hitler and Stalin.
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--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> Pak offers 'peaceful' bin Laden safe havenChidanand Rajghatta
[ 7 Sep, 2006 0002hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
In Islamabad, Sultan later described the ABC report as "absolutely fabricated, absurd" and insisted he never said the remarks attibuted to him.
Indeed, it was unclear from his exchanges with ABC if bin Laden was the specific subject of discussion at that point in the interview, although Sultan broadly suggests that any terrorist who surrenders and forswears violence can stay in Pakistan.
Q. ABC News : If bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, they could stay?
A. Gen. Sultan: No one of that kind can stay. If someone is there he will have to surrender, he will have to live like a good citizen, his whereabouts, exit or travel would be known to the authorities.
Q. ABC News : So, he wouldn't be taken into custody? He would stay there?
A. Gen. Sultan: No, as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody. One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity.
Whether bin Laden-specific or not, Pakistan's hospitable remarks towards terrorists and its retreat from within its own territory on Tuesday came even as President Bush pledged to eliminate terror camps and help allies re-establish control over their own sovereign territories.
The amnesty offer was angrily denounced by analysts on television networks who suggested Pakistan is retreating from the war on terrorism.
The development also came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 when bin Laden suddenly appears to have made a comeback in US public discourse. Bush mentioned bin Laden 17 times in a speech on Tuesday on the war on terror, invoking his name alongside Hitler and Stalin.
< Previous|1|2