LONDON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Pakistan should assume responsibility over the aerial drones used by the U.S. intelligence agency, the former Pakistani president said.
Former President Pervez Musharraf in an interview with U.S. news agency Fox from London said Islamabad should take control over the unmanned drones so it can tackle its terrorist problems on its own.
"I personally believe that drones should be given to Pakistan because the sensitivity is American troops or any foreign troops coming into Pakistan," he said.
Missiles launched from aerial drones believed to be operated by the CIA routinely pound the volatile region along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.
Missile strikes were alleged to have taken out two top al-Qaida commanders in recent days while an August airstrike took out Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban.
Nonetheless, Musharraf said the national sentiment regarding the Taliban has shifted, adding now is the time for Pakistanis to address the issue.
"Now all the people of Pakistan and also the media is combined, is united, asking the army to defeat them," he said.
On al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the former president questioned whether the terrorist mastermind was even alive.
"There is even a doubt whether he is alive," he said. "Because right in the beginning he was a dialysis patient, he was a kidney patient; therefore I wonder if he is alive."
