IHT : Pakistan essential in West's fight against terrorism, Musharraf says

Pakistan essential in West's fight against terrorism, Musharraf says

The Associated Press | September 30, 2006

LONDON Pakistan's president warned Saturday that without his country's help, the West would lose the war on terrorism, and said Pakistan's contribution in the battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan was essential.

"You'll be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't cooperate with you," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio aired Saturday. "Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not to be with you, you won't manage anything. Let that be clear. And if ISI is not with you, you will fail. Let that be clear also. Remember my words."

The ISI — Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, the country's top spy agency — has been accused of masterminding the July 11 train bombings that killed more than 200 people in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The Mumbai police commissioner, A.N. Roy, made the allegation on Saturday — and Pakistan denied the charge.

Musharraf's interview was conducted before Roy made the allegations in a news conference in India.

The ISI has also been accused in recent days of indirectly supporting terror groups.

The BBC quoted a leaked British Ministry of Defense document as saying that "indirectly, Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism — whether in London on (July 7, 2005) or in Afghanistan or Iraq."

Musharraf denied the allegation. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said during a two-hour meeting with the Pakistani president on Thursday that the assertions in the document were not the government's view.

In the BBC interview, Musharraf denied claims made by human rights organization Amnesty International which alleged that terrorism suspects arrested in Pakistan had disappeared.

"I don't want even to reply to that. It's nonsense, I don't believe it," he said, adding that everyone who had been arrested during terrorism investigations could be accounted for.