ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari Monday ruled out the possibility of his country’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the Taleban as Pakistani troops killed 20 militants in a ground and air operation in the northwest Monday after a shaky peace deal was thrown into doubt when the Taleban suspended talks.
In a wide-ranging interview with the international media, Zardari spoke about the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, growing Taleban clout in Pakistan and his own political future.
“I want to assure the world that the nuclear capability of Pakistan is under safe hands,” he said.
Zardari said Pakistan had a strong command-and-control system for its nuclear weapons that was fully in place.
Zardari said the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden remained a mystery and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.
He said US officials had told him that they had no trace of the Al-Qaeda chief and the same view was shared by his own intelligence agencies.
“There is no news,” the president said. “They obviously feel that he does not exist anymore but that’s not confirmed, we can’t confirm that,” he said, referring to Pakistani intelligence agencies.
Zardari said authorities in the northwest of the country had struck the deal with Islamists in Swat in line with the popular demand for a negotiated and political settlement of the issue.
However, he said parliament could reassess the situation after militants challenged writ of the government by extending their activities to other parts of the region.
But the Taleban suspended talks with the government after Pakistan’s military launched a fresh offensive against the fighters in the northwest.
“Our council of leaders met Sunday night and decided to suspend peace negotiations with the government in North West Frontier Province,” said a spokesman for Soofi Mohammad, the cleric who negotiated a peace deal between the two sides in February.
“We, however, still adhere to the February deal,” Ameer Izzat Khan told AFP, referring to the highly controversial accord that put three million people under Shariah law. – Agencies