ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 8 (UPI) -- Pakistan has said the remarks by a U.S. State Department official questioning Islamabad's efforts to curb terror were highly irresponsible.
U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism Henry Crumpton said that Pakistan was not doing enough to curb terrorism. Crumpton, who is currently on a visit to Afghanistan, said most of the Taliban and al-Qaida leadership had found a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan.
"The United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding; the al-Qaida leader was probably on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border," Crumpton said
Reacting to Crumpton's remarks, Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations Director General Shaukat Sultan said the charges were all the more surprising, as the official had made no such comments during his visit to Pakistan a week earlier.
"Such allegations were baseless and beyond the facts," Sultan said, adding, "the allegation that al-Qaida leadership was hiding in Pakistan and that the Pakistan government was well aware of it was incorrect and unjustified."
Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao said if that had Pakistan had any information about bin Laden, al-Qaida or the Taliban, they would have acted upon it.
During Crumpton's visit, Sherpao said, the official had spoken of his appreciation of Pakistan's role in the fight against terrorism.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have of late been engaged in a verbal war on the other's efforts to contain al-Qaida and the Taliban. The war of words intensified after the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Pakistan in early March.
