Former President General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) has warned the United States not to repeat its May 2 action anywhere in Pakistan, as it would not be good for Pakistan's co-operation in war against terror.
"US should not repeat May 2, stealth strike. The people in the streets don't at all like United States. This will anger them and any agitation in the streets which will increase obviously, if this happens indiscriminately, then it will put that amount of pressure on the government, on the Army, on the intelligence agencies which will not be good in the point of view of co-operating in this war against terror, against al Qaeda or Taliban. I can only say that they must not do it. They must understand Pakistan's sensitivities, specially the sensitivities of the people of Pakistan," the former military strongman who plunged Pakistan into the US led war against terrorism as a frontline state following 9/11.2001 said in a TV interview with Indian journalist Karan Thapar on Sunday.
"I support Pakistan's demand that Americans should reduce their military personnel in the country to an absolute minimum. They shouldn't have been there in any case, they should never have been there. There is no need of American troops in Pakistan. In my time, we had only co-operated on intelligence level, because we needed to develop technical intelligence to target all these al Qaeda people in our cities. To that extent, we sought co-operation. There were no troops in Pakistan and now if there are troops, they must not be there. They must leave," he urged.
"Some heads must roll and actions must be taken for our incompetence to locate Osama Bin Laden and his killing by the US Navy Seal at Abbotabad. Let's leave all these things to the enquiry being conducted by the military high command and actions to be taken later as nothing can be more embarrassing for Pakistan," he emphasised.
Musharraf said, "more than the world Pakistan needs an explanation to itself that how did this incompetence and failure occur? (Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan). I think we should answer first and nobody has the right to start demanding from Pakistan first, because I strongly believe that is incompetence and not complicity," he stressed.
Pervez Musharraf said," I am reasonably sure or very sure that government of Pakistan was unaware of Osama's presence in Pakistan because this is not the policy of Pakistan, that is not the policy of the intelligence agency, not the policy of the army. Therefore, I cannot imagine that there was complicity involved. I cannot imagine that OBL had been living in Abbotabad for five years."
"To my logic it doesn't appear logical that he could have been there for five years because the people surrounding that place, there have been umpteen number of interviews and none of them have said that they have seen Osama bin Laden. Now don't tell me that he has imprisoned himself in a room for five years, given himself rigorous imprisonment, staying inside a room not visible to anyone to the people living there 24 hours," the former President emphasised.