Squabble over war reporting

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 28. Tension between the United States-led coalition and the military establishment in Pakistan is growing over the nature of war reporting on Afghanistan. While Washington is upset over what it believes as reports in a section of the Pakistani press that ``seek to undermine'' the military campaign in Afghanistan, Islamabad is angry over what it perceives as ``irresponsible'' reporting by a section of the Western media about the role of Pakistan.

Today, both sides ventilated their grievances against each other's press. The U.S. was agitated over a report in a section of the Pakistani press over the alleged death of 16 U.S. marines when they went to launch an offensive on Kandahar. Islamabad was angry over a number of reports in the West about Pakistani helicopters ferrying back home army officers and regulars engaged in fighting along with the Taliban in Kunduz and other parts of Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, press secretary to the Pakistan President, was so angry over reports of Pakistan Air Force rescuing its military officers and men from the battle zone that he wanted reporters filing such false reports to be sacked.

Maj. Gen. Qureshi's outburst prompted a Pakistani journalist to remind him that such things did not happen in ``civilised and democratic societies'' and that it was a tradition confined only to Pakistan. The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson, Mr. Aziz Khan, chipped in to say that in the past too when he was Ambassador in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance had claimed to have captured Pakistani military officers and regulars but never produced them in public.

At the U.S. briefing, the spokesperson, the Ambassador, Mr. Kenton W. Keith, described the report in the Pakistani press about the death of 16 U.S. marines as ``rubbish'' and asserted that there was no truth whatsoever in the claim. Two days ago, reacting to a similar report, the coalition information centre deemed it necessary to issue a statement denouncing it as ``typical'' of reports in the Pakistani press ever since the October 7 military campaign in Afghanistan.

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Section  : International
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