Pak. under U.S. pressure for action against Osama

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, AUG. 17. The military government in Pakistan is reportedly under pressure from the U.S. to permit and provide active support to the U.S. Commando teams, including clearance for the secret deployment of American special forces in northern Pakistan for an operation inside Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden.

In its lead report today, the Pakistan English daily, The News, quoting sources in the military government, claimed that the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has rejected the American requests and conveyed to the Bush administration that any strikes against Afghanistan at this juncture could only be counter-productive.

A senior official in the U.S. Embassy here declined to comment on the authenticity of the report. ``We are not aware of any such plans. Even assuming that it is correct, it would never be made public in advance,'' was his cryptic comment.

There has been speculation in the Pakistani press on the possibility of another round of strikes on the bases of Osama and his aides in Afghanistan. They reached a feverish pitch in September last, just before the American election.

The Pakistani daily, in its report said that with its intensified efforts to zero in on Osama not succeeding, U.S. security officials were now seriously considering ground action to conduct raids into Afghanistan from Pakistan's North-West Frontier borders to strike at the rebel's bases.

The speculation over possible American ground action follows Pakistan's acceptance to station U.N. monitors to keep a close watch on the implementation of the ongoing U.N. sanctions against Taliban.

The U.N. monitors, who are expected to be equipped with the most sophisticated ground and satellite equipment, will be stationed along the more than 2000 km long porous borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Section  : International
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