WANA: The General Officer Commanding in South Waziristan, Major
General Rizwan Akhter on Thursday again made it clear that a third
force was creating hurdles in Pak-Afghan ties.
While speaking
to the media, General Officer Commanding in South Waziristan, Major
General Rizwan Akhter has blamed the US for attempting to embarrass
Pakistan by delaying information about explosives factories located in
the agency.
The Major General was of a clear-cut stance that a third force was creating hurdles in Pak-Afghan ties.
He
also spoke on the situation in South Waziristan and emphasized that the
priority is to win the hearts and minds of people as peace has been
restored in most parts of the agency.
On the issue of
foreigners in the agency he said that they were not present in most of
the areas but could not confirm their elimination.
On June 14,
then US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the Obama
administration was disappointed by the unexplained failure of raids on
militant compounds in the tribal areas.
Gates claimed that the
CIA had shared information relating to IED factories being run by
militants located in North and South Waziristan with Pakistan. However,
when security forces raided the factories, the militants had
disappeared. The Defense Secretary insisted that he did not know why
the effort went awry.
In a question, he said that during
operation in NWA against militants, 605 militants have been killed
while 107 army soldiers have been martyred.
He said that peace
must be restored in war-torn areas urging presence of foreigners in NWA
is not true however at the moment we cannot comment on the thorny issue. Online
