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Q:
What is your reaction to the government's operation in the South
Waziristan Agency and the recent killing of 12 tribesmen by army
personnel in Wana?
A:
Al-Qaeda is not a product of the Pukhtoon society. It's a foreign
element. What is strange about this operation is that those who
offered shelter have been arrested, and those who took refuge remain
elusive. We will have to see who is responsible for bringing them
here. They come from countries ranging from Morocco to Indonesia.
Who harboured them for so long? All this must have certain consequences.
Allowing
someone else to use your land has its implications. You must face
its political and geographical consequences.
Q: Did Pakistan have any options?
A:
When you brought these aliens here and looked after them for so
long, you closed your options.
Q:
Don't you think the United States would have intervened had Pakistan
decided not to carry out the operations?
A:
You have to look at the root cause of all this mess. They brought
aliens here. They organised them. They offered them refuge. Now
they are reaping what they have sown.
Q:
Do you mean Pakistan had a role in the making of Al-Qaeda and the
Taliban?
A:
Even Pakistan doesn't deny the role that it has played.
Q:
The federally-administered tribal areas (FATA) have a special constitutional
status. Pakistan's ordinary laws are not applicable there. Has this
aggravated the situation in the tribal areas, particularly in the
South Waziristan Agency?
A: All the Al-Qaeda leaders have been apprehended
from Faisalabad and Karachi. The whole region has been affected.
This is not about the tribal areas alone.
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