| GEO Pakistan | | No evidence of Osama's presence in Pakistan: Kaira | Updated at: 2157 PST, Thursday, July 30, 2009
 ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information andBroadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that there is no evidence that Osama Bin Laden is present in Pakistan and those making claims of his presence in the country should provide actionable proof of it.
If our coalition partners have any suggestions for improving our actions against the terrorists they should convey it to us instead of making assumptions, he said in response to the statement of a Western diplomat, who had said that Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden and his second in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri might be hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
"Al-Qaeda and Taliban have threatened Pakistan, attacked our security forces, killed innocent civilians and targeted our leadership. We are therefore, combating terrorism in our own interest. We do not want our efforts to be undermined by hypothetical assumptions", he said.
The Information Minister said that in the war against terrorism Pakistan has sacrificed more in terms of human life than the combined loss of Afghan army and ISAF.
"We have deployed three times more troops on our side of the border to interdict terrorists. Our law enforcement actions in Swatand Malakand have been very successful. We have a record of doing more than any other single country in the war against terrorism", he added.
Qamar Zaman Kaira said that for the success of Pakistan's counter-terrorism endeavours, it is important to focus on effective cooperation and coordination rather than going to press and making hypothetical statements that would further complicate its ongoing efforts to fight Al-Qaeda and other terrorist elements.
The basis of our cooperation with our partners is well-defined and well-understood. All counter-terrorism measures inside Pakistan will be taken by our own security forces, he said.
"We are committed and will take firm action on the basis of information gathered by us through our own means or concrete and actionable intelligence shared with us," he added. |  |
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