No Need to Extend US Military Operation into Pakistan: Musharraf

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 06, 2002

No Need to Extend US Military Operation into Pakistan: Musharraf

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that there was no need to extend US military operation into Pakistan as the country's forces were taking action against runaway al-Qaeda elements.

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that there was no need to extend US military operation into Pakistan as the country's forces were taking action against runaway al-Qaeda elements.

He made the remarks while talking to an Islamabad-based US journalist, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Musharraf said some al-Qaeda elements might have taken refuge in the tribal areas that run along the Afghan border. But, he said, there was no need to take help from the American forces.

"That would be unwise. There is no need of it. There are forces here. The army is deployed," he noted.

The President said that it was too early for the United States to consider scaling back military operations there. He said the United States should send more peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan to ensure peaceful environment there.

"They haven't completed their mission and conditions are still a little volatile," he said, adding that the Afghan government still needs support in this connection.

The President suggested that, besides Kabul, these additional forces should be deployed in other major cites for maintaining law and order with the help of the local administration.

President Musharraf said the international peacekeeping forces should play a more effective role in stabilizing President Karzai's interim government.

Responding to a question, Musharraf said, "Pakistan will not support any probable attack against Iraq."

"Let me say we have too much to handle here. Everything is happening in this area," he said. "It is not whether we support or don't support. We don't want to get involved."

"We think that if the United States attacks Iraq, it would create unrest across the Muslim world," he said.

To another question about the political situation in Pakistan, the President said, he was trying to establish a political system that could block the way of corrupt politician.

Democracy did not have a set formula, the President said, adding he was giving a formula which was home-grown and tailored to meet his country's requirement.

"The West must understand this. This is what I want to tell them in the United States. Don't see Pakistan with American eyes, or British eyes or Australian eyes. Every country has its own environment if democracy is to be sustainable and that is what I want," said the President.

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