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This is an archive article published on September 29, 2011

At UN,Pak again plays the victim

‘If I began recounting Pakistan’s sacrifices,I would keep you here till next September.’

As tensions remained high with the US on the ISI’s support to terrorists in Afghanistan,Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar stood her ground in the UN on Tuesday,stoutly defending the record of Pakistani intelligence agencies in fighting terrorism,and repeating Islamabad’s line that no country has been ravaged as “brutally” by the “monster of terrorism” as Pakistan.

“If I began recounting Pakistan’s sacrifices and Pakistan’s suffering,I would keep you here till next September. We do not take terrorism lightly. We cannot to afford to take terrorism lightly,we have suffered far too much at its hand,” Khar told the 66th session of the general assembly.

The ISI had done more than its bit in fighting terror,she said: “Notable success against al-Qaeda and its affiliates has been registered in recent years. It is well known that following the Tora Bora bombing and consequent dispersal of al-Qaeda,it was Pakistan’s intelligence and security agencies that interdicted a large number of al-Qaeda operatives… Very recently,Yousuf Al Mauritani,the chief operative of al-Qaeda,was arrested in a joint ISI and CIA operation.”

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Pakistan,Khar said,“is united in its determination to eliminate the spectre of terrorism from our soil,from our region and the world. It is Pakistan’s firm determination not to allow any space on its territory for militants and terrorists.” She added that “other countries in the region” too must “pledge” that their territories would not be allowed to be used by terrorists against other nations.

Khar returned to Pakistan late Wednesday evening,and was expected to brief a meeting of nearly 60 leaders of Pakistan’s parties convened by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to frame a response to the US. ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha too is expected to brief the meeting.

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