Share this story!            

Bajaur strike impossible without info from local agencies: Sethi

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Daily Times Editor Najam Sethi has said that it was impossible for the US to have carried out the air strike in Bajaur Agency without prior information from Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Talking to Geo Television on Tuesday, Sethi said that President Pervez Musharraf had spoken of indications that Al Qaeda members had been killed in the air strike on Damadola village on January 13. “This statement indicates that Pakistani intelligence agencies were involved in the bombardment to some extent. It seems as if they passed on information,” he said. The fact that Musharraf did not talk about the Bajaur strike in his last address to the nation also pointed to Pakistan’s involvement in the attack, he said.

Sethi cited contradictions in statements by the president and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. “The prime minister said in the US that Pakistan will not be bullied, but later said that the US should seek Pakistan’s clearance before such attacks,” he said, adding that such statements indicated that “there was something wrong within”.

“It is regrettable that the president and prime minister are giving contradicting statements on the Bajaur incident at a time when both are visiting foreign countries,” the Daily Times editor said.

He said that Musharraf has always been straightforward and “has taken the nation into confidence”, while politicians hide facts before being cleared by higher authorities. Aziz was turning into a politician and perhaps did not speak openly on the Bajaur strike because he had not been cleared to do so, he said. “But the situation is embarrassing. Shaukat Aziz will retreat from his earlier stance and start issuing the same statements on Bajaur as Musharraf,” Sethi said.

Home | National

Share this story!