M A I N   N E W S

NWFP police chief says porous Afghan border main infiltration route
‘Qaida,Taliban present across Pak’

New Delhi, April 5
In a sensational disclosure, a top Pakistani police officer has said Al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists were present in every town and city of Pakistan and had plans to destabilise the Middle East to use the region as a "launch pad" against the US and Europe. The police chief of North West Frontier Province, Malik Navid, has told a Standing Committee of the Pakistan National Assembly that the two outfits "planned to carry out terrorist attacks similar to the September 11, 2001, strike on the US and European targets.

"The terrorists and extremists were spreading across Pakistan and they had plans to destabilise the Middle East so that it could be used as a launch pad against the US and Europe," Navid was quoted by Pakistani newspaper 'Daily Times'.

The Taliban are "present in every city and town" in Pakistan, "active in some places and dormant in others", he said, adding that they are moving towards southern Punjab "with the intention of reaching Karachi".

Maintaining that the "porous" nature of the 1,000 km long border with Afghanistan was the prime reason for large number of weapons coming into Pakistan's tribal areas, the police chief said "the Taliban were trying to turn the tribal areas into Islamic Emirates of Waziristan".

Meanwhile, in what has become an increasing trend in Pakistan at least 38 people, including eight paramilitary personnel were killed yesterday in two separate suicide attacks in Islamabad and North Waziristan.

Navid said Al-Qaida was "an expert in indoctrinating" young people to become suicide bombers and "some of the country's madrassas were also involved in this process".Observing that the bombers were being trained by Qaida operative Qari Hussain, he said they were primarily composed of those associated with the Taliban, local outfits, criminals and Afghan Taliban, though the major group remained the Al-Qaida, the daily reported.

It said the assessment of the NWFP police chief "should serve as a warning to Pakistani authorities to comprehend that they can no longer survive by maintaining links with terrorist and extremist elections on the one hand and fighting them with the US on the other.

Navid's statement before the Pakistani parliament's Standing Committee came even as US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said that the men who had planned the 9/11 terror strikes, London or Madrid attacks, who killed Benazir Bhutto and targeted Mumbai "were still in western Pakistan planning further attacks and the "Taliban are their protective cordon", a report in another Pakistani daily 'The News' said from The Hague. — PTI