Islamabad
President Pervez Musharraf has warned of the threat of Pakistan
becoming a safe haven for foreign terrorists, national media
reported Friday.
"(People) carry out terrorist activities in other countries and then
seek refuge here. Let us not make Pakistan a soft state where law
and order cannot be maintained," Musharraf said on state television
late Thursday.
The president was speaking a day after German authorities said they
arrested three suspected terrorists who had received training in
Pakistan in 2006 and were planning a series of bomb attacks against
US citizens.
German prosecutors said Wednesday that the two German converts to
Islam and a Turkish Muslim belonged to an Uzbek-linked extremist
group and had amassed the same explosive materials used to kill 52
people in the July 2005 attacks on London's public transport system.
While the foreign Mmnistry in Islamabad denies the existence of
terrorist training camps in Pakistan, Musharraf acknowledged that
al-Qaeda members, mainly Arabs and Uzbeks, and Taliban insurgents
were active in the country.
The US-allied military ruler urged the nation to take a firm stand
against terrorism and extremism, warning that otherwise, "Pakistan's
future will remain at stake."
His country was not only the source of terrorism but also its
victim, Musharraf stressed, two days after suicide bombers targeted
intelligence officials in Islamabad's twin city of Rawalpindi,
killing some 30 people and injuring 60.
The bombings were the latest in a series of attacks by suspected
pro-Taliban militants operating in the mountainous tribal areas by
the border with Afghanistan.
US intelligence claims the region has emerged as a refuge for Osama
bin Laden's reconstituted al-Qaeda network.
Pakistan has deployed almost 90,000 troops down the frontier to try
to stem militant and terrorist activities.
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