Pakistan rejects Russian FM's claim on terrorist camps

Pakistan Saturday rejected Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement that terrorists are being trained in camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan with the help of former Taliban.

"There are no terrorist training camps in Pakistan. Pakistan would not allow anyone to use its soil for terrorist activities against any other country," Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told the state-run television.

"We have made tremendous sacrifices in fighting the menace of terrorism and our sacrifices and efforts have not only been praised but also acknowledged by the international community," Jilani said.

"I can say with full confidence that Pakistan has been rid of such elements to great extent," the spokesman said, adding Pakistan condemns all forms of terrorism.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Friday in Moscow said Russia has information about the occasional transfer of terrorists trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Ferghana valley, a region of Central Asia spreading across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

"People are being trained in Afghanistan and adjacent territory of Pakistan with the help of Taliban for acts of terrorism in Russia," he said at a joint news conference in Moscow with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

"Periodically these people are transferred to the Ferghana valley," Lavrov said.

Source: Xinhua