London: British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown on Sunday said Pakistan must do more to "break"
al-Qaeda and find Osama bin Laden.
Brown told the BBC that eight years after the 2001
attacks on the US, nobody had been able "to spot or detain or
get close to" the al Qaeda leader.
Pakistan's security services must join the "major
effort" to isolate the terrorist group, he warned.
He said more progress was needed "in taking out" Bin
Laden and his number two Ayman Zawahiri.
Pak reacts strongly to UK call
Pakistan on Sunday reacted
strongly to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call for it
to take tougher action against al Qaeda and find Osama bin
Laden, saying no one should doubt its efforts in the war
against terrorism.
"Pakistan has played its role in fighting al Qaeda and
other terrorists. Over the past eight years, we have captured
or killed 700 al Qaeda operatives. No one should have doubts
about our efforts," said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.
Basit said Pakistan was surprised by Brown's call to
do more in the campaign against al Qaeda.
He said the world community has appreciated Pakistan's
efforts in the war on terror.
"Osama bin Laden's whereabouts are not known to
anyone. If anyone knows (where he is), it would be better if
the information is shared with Pakistan instead of the matter
being discussed in the media," he said.
Pakistan will act promptly if such information is
shared with it, he said.
Ahead of a visit to Britain by Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani later this week, Brown told the BBC that Pakistan
must do more to "break" al Qaeda and find Osama bin Laden.
"We've got to ask ourselves why, eight years after
September 11, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get
close to Osama bin Laden, nobody's been able to get close to
(Ayman) Zawahiri, the number two in al Qaeda," he said.
Brown said he wanted to see "more progress in taking
out" bin Laden and Zawahiri.
Pakistan has to "join us in the major effort that the
world is committing resources to, and that is not only to
isolate al Qaeda but to break them in Pakistan", he said.
Gilani will meet Brown on Thursday.
Brown informed Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari by
phone yesterday that he intends to speak out about the hunt
for Osama bin Laden.
Brown said that over eight years "we should have been
able to do more to get to the bottom of where al Qaeda is
operating from".
PTI