Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Pakistan for probe into US envoy murder plot
Indo-Asian News Service
Islamabad, June 21, 2005
Pakistan has called for a probe into reports that Afghan security forces had arrested three Pakistanis for allegedly planning to assassinate the US ambassador in Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad.
"We are confident that the Afghan government will thoroughly investigate such incidents," Online news agency quoted foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani as saying. "We condemn all acts of terrorism."
An Afghan official said the Pakistanis, suspected of being linked to a Pakistani Islamic militant group, were arrested in the eastern province of Laghman Saturday, the day before Khalilzad visited there to inaugurate a military unit.
Khalilzad is due to take up a new post as US ambassador to Iraq.
The Afghan official said the three men were caught with two AK-47 rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Commenting on Khalilzad's statement that Taliban leader Mulla Omar and Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden could be in Pakistan, Jilani said: "Pakistan's credentials as a frontline state in the war on terrorism have been acknowledged worldwide... and (by) the US administration. On the other side, representatives of the US government are talking in a different way."
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.