Pakistan has strongly denied a report by the U.S. magazine The New Yorker, which says that Islamabad has reached an agreement with the United States and allow thousands of U.S. troops to launch an operation inside Pakistan, to hunt down Osama Bin Ladin. The magazine claimed that President Pervez Musharraf granted permission in exchange for American support on his decision to pardon Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan for his role in the proliferation of nuclear technology.
Under the agreement, some highly trained commando units stationed in Iraq were ordered to get ready for the operation. While denying the report, Pakistan’s Foreign Office, as usual, reiterated its position that no foreign troops would be allowed to operate in Pakistan.
However, only a day after the Foreign Office’s denial, new reports poured in saying that American helicopters and aircraft were landing in Pakistani airports every day. According to the reports, these aircraft would take part in the massive search operation for Osama Bin Laden.
The whole affair is so serious that it has sent ripples of anxiety through the Pakistani community living overseas. If these reports are true, then Pakistan certainly has lost its sovereignty and independence. There is no guarantee that the troops entering and landing in Pakistani soil shall limit their military operations to the tribal belt [where Bin Ladin is rumored to be] and that cities such as Karachi and Lahore will be spared.
We pray that these reports are wrong, since denials by the Foreign Office have never been trustworthy. In the past, news previously denied by them, within days was presented as official national policy. Take the example of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. The Foreign Office, military spokesmen and the government vehemently denied reports that Dr. Qadeer Khan was being debriefed – at the time, the Pakistani government called them provocative. But later, the world saw that not only was Dr. Khan continuously debriefed, but he was kept under detention, tortured, and disgraced publicly by being made to confess to the crime.
