Blast won't distract operation: FM

Published: June 27, 2009

TRIESTE (Reuters) - An unprecedented suicide bombing in Azad Kashmir on Friday will not distract security forces from their operation against Taliban militants, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told Reuters.
“The militants are hurting and they are reacting. And this is a reaction to the successful operations we’ve had in Waziristan and we’ve had in the Malakand Division,” Qureshi said in an interview. “But these odd attempts will not distract us. We are focused and we know what has to be done.”
The Army is also preparing an all-out assault against Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud in his stronghold of South Waziristan, on the Afghan border.
“We can’t give you a timing. But we are moving at the right speed,” Qureshi said during a trip to Trieste, Italy, where the Group of Eight industrialised countries were holding a conference on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“We are moving in a focused manner. We are moving according to the resources available to us. We don’t want to overstretch, nor do we want to give the insurgents time to escape.”
Qureshi met his Indian counterpart on Friday in Trieste for talks that Qureshi described as part of ‘a re-engagement of the dialogue’ suspended after the Mumbai attacks last November.