Pakistan Tribune
December 1, 2006
US, NATO attacked Afghanistan to achieve their targets: FO
ISLAMABAD - The United States of America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) attacked Afghanistan not for benefit of Pakistan but for their personal gains, said Tasneem Aslam spokesperson of the foreign office here on Thursday.
In an interview to the state run television network, the foreign office spokesperson said that Pakistan never wanted an operation at such scale in Afghanistan because it could open the flood gate of refugees once again to Pakistan.
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The Western states used their resources and technology to crush the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s and as a result 3 million Afghan refuges arrived in Pakistan. We welcomed them and did every bit to be a good host.
The world knows that in the presence of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, she said, Jihad culture was promoted and Arab Mujahideen were given assistance by the western world to accomplish their agenda and when the Soviet Union was brought down to its knees the Mujahideen reunited as Taliban and now they are fighting against the Allied troops.
And everything we are facing today is because of the Afghan war of the 1980s.
And even in the post-9/11 scenario we were not in favour of an attack on Afghanistan because we knew it would create tremendous problems for us.
When the US attacked Afghanistan they used Daisy Cutter missiles and every single missile costs around US$ 45,0000 and God knows how much wealth the US spent on invading Afghanistan.
Instead, she said if the amount spend on the latest Afghanistan invasion as well the wealth used for the ouster of Russia from Afghanistan had been used in proper manner for reconstruction of the war-stricken country it could have proved to be a good step in the
right direction.
If this had had happened Afghanistan could have been a different territory altogether. It could not have become a nursery for terrorism.
The foreign office spokesperson said we have deployed around 80,000 troops at the Pak-Afghan border to control cross-border infiltration. This is not our responsibility to go there (Afghanistan) and control the situation.
Tasneem Aslam went on to say that it is unfortunate for the Afghan government that it has failed to control the situation there and instead levels allegations against the Pakistani government for giving training to Taliban.
This is utterly rubbish, as how could they come to Pakistan so quickly after carrying out their
activities 200 kilometers away deep in Afghanistan.
And if they are doing so then what are NATO and allied troops doing there to control them?
Despite having huge resources, troops and technology why can't they control Taliban? she asked.
We even tried to close the Afghan refugee camps situated near the Pak-Afghan border but the Afghan government refused to do so.
Responding to a query, she said neither have we inked an agreement with Taliban nor do we have a policy to ink accords with terrorists.
She went on to say that it has always been a policy of the government whether the matters are internal or external, force should not be used because problems could not be resolved in this manner.
Citing the North Waziristan situation, she said first of all tribal leaders were given time besides an option that either they should hand over the terrorists to the government or kick them out of their territory and after that who ever wants to live in Pakistan he will have to register himself with the government and live peacefully.
This was a simple option but they did not accept it and an operation was launched in North Waziristan Agency.
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