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No joint operations, says Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MARCH 10. Pakistan today dismissed reports of a hunt being carried out for Osama bin Laden on its soil and also rejected reports of any joint operation by the Pakistani and the U.S. forces in search of Al-Qaeda members.

``There has never been a joint search,'' the Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said in response to a question on reports in the local and international media on the subject. Mr. Khan said the Pakistani forces alone were carrying out operations inside its territory.

Since the U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan in October, 2001, Pakistan has consistently maintained that it had not provided any military bases to the U.S. inside Pakistan to search for the Al-Qaeda members.

The tracking of the Taliban operatives fleeing Afghanistan was being exclusively undertaken by Pakistan forces.

Asked why Pakistan has changed its stance towards those earlier described as mujahideen (holy warriors) to terrorists, Mr. Khan said Pakistan, itself a victim of terrorism, had always opposed terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

To a question on the excavation of the ground where Babri Masjid once stood to determine whether there was a temple beneath it, he said the act of "erasing the mosque to ground by the Hindu fanatics was a shameful thing. Our position has been that the mosque should be re-constructed... and no temple should be allowed to be built (there).''

Mr. Khan dismissed reports appearing in the U.S. media alleging Pakistan's assistance to Iran's nuclear programme. On Iran-India joint military exercises, the spokesman said that Pakistan and Iran enjoyed excellent relations as was evident from the Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami's recent visit to Pakistan.

He said that Pakistan's relations with Iran were not contingent upon its ties with any other country.

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