Ex-DG ISI General (R) Javed Ashraf justifies raids on DawaJamaatud Dawa (JD)

Ex-DG ISI Javed Ashraf justifies raids on Dawa

LAHORE: Former Inter-Services Intelligence director general (DG) Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi on Friday justified the government’s crackdown on Jamaatud Dawa (JD), saying Pakistan would have been isolated by the world if it had not acted. Talking to a private TV channel, Qazi said Pakistan did ‘the right thing’ by acting against JD after the United Nations Security Council blacklisted it. He said it was binding on Pakistan to act against the organisation otherwise it would have faced UN sanctions, which it could not afford in the face of current economic crisis. daily times monitor (13 Dec 2008)

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Pakistan should go extra mile against terror: Nawaz Sharif

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Pakistan should ‘go the extra mile’ to combat terrorism especially in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif told India’s Tehelka magazine in an interview published on Friday.

“Nobody should be prepared to spare [any] organisation” that is “playing havoc both here and in India”, he said. “We should take serious action and we should let India know that . . . action is now being taken against such elements,” he said. “I think we should now set an example.” Nawaz said it was very important for Indians and the rest of the world to see that Pakistan was sincere and be sympathetic.

He said that despite political differences, he was absolutely sure the government in Islamabad was not involved in the Mumbai attacks. “The political leadership of Pakistan has no such agenda,” he said. Nawaz said Pakistan was fighting with “elements within our country” who he called “people who don’t believe in democracy”.

“These elements are products of dictatorship,” he said, adding that there were no suicide bombings when he was prime minister. “They emerged after Musharraf’s takeover,” he said. “He is responsible for grooming them.” Such groups were wrongly projecting jihad, Nawaz said. “The definition of jihad is to fight against tyranny and injustice. Killing innocent people is not jihad.”

He said the army and the ISI were “legally and technically” under the civilian government’s control, “But . . . some adventurers in the past have been derailing democracy.”

He said the Indians wanted ‘someone senior’ from Pakistan to visit them and a ‘full delegation’ could have gone to India after the Mumbai attacks. (13 Dec 2008)