Pakistan will intensify a crackdown on al Qaeda in coming weeks, moving against nerve centres of Osama bin Laden's network in the country, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has said.
| That would be mighty nice of them... |
He said a string of arrests of al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in recent weeks had helped security forces get a better picture of the network, but added it was not known where bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was holed up.
| Did you look in Fazl's guest house? I mean, thoroughly, including under the bed and in the closet? |
"In the weeks and months to come we hope to further intensify our efforts in hitting at those nerve centres and at those crucial and sensitive areas where by hitting hard, al Qaeda will certainly be hurt the most," Hayat told Reuters.
| That'll cause Qazi to squeal like a pig. Maybe he'll have another heart attack... |
Asked whether the recent arrests, said to be about 20, had brought Pakistan any closer to catching bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al Zawahri, the minister said security agencies were better placed than before. "As far as these two top notches are concerned we do hope... we are certainly in a much better position today to have a better view of where al Qaeda stands," the minister said. He added it had never been determined whether the two al Qaeda leaders were hiding in Pakistan or over the border in Afghanistan where U.S.-led forces are battling Taliban fighters, driven out of Kabul in late 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda.
| "No, no! Certainly not! There's no proof, y'know... Well, no credible proof... None that's credible to us anyway..." |
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