Brown urges Pak to 'take out' Osama bin Laden

Gordon Brown told Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden yesterday as Western frustration at its failure to capture the al-Qaeda leader burst into the public glare.
With America and Britain seeking support for their decisions in the next two days to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, Mr Brown told the Pakistani leadership that it had not done enough to catch the men believed to be hiding in the north of the country responsible for the September 11 attacks. Mr Brown told President Asif Ali Zardari in a telephone call on Saturday that he intended to press home the message on Thursday when Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani Prime Minister, visits London. About 30,000 Pakistani troops are in the lawless South Waziristan region to force out the Taliban. In interviews as he returned from the Commonwealth summit, Mr Brown made clear that he wanted them also to target the leadership of al-Qaeda, which has evaded international forces since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Brown said: We have got to focus the attention of the world on the continuing threat from al-Qaeda. Three quarters of terrorist plots that threaten Britain arise from that area of Pakistan. I believe that, after eight years, we should have been able to do more . . . to get to the bottom of where al-Qaeda is operating from. I want to make sure that the Pakistani Army and Pakistani security services, as well as the Pakistani politicians, will make sure that in South Waziristan we are taking on al-Qaeda directly. We want to see more progress in taking out these top two people in al-Qaeda who have done so much damage and are clearly behind many of the operations in Great Britain. In a stronger broadside he added: We have got to ask ourselves why, eight years after September 11, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama bin Laden. Nobody has been able to get close to Zawahiri, the No 2 in al-Qaeda. And we have got to ask the Pakistan authorities and security services, army and politicians, to join us in the major effort the world is committing resources to, not only to isolate al-Qaeda, but to break them in Pakistan. If we are putting our strategy into place, Pakistan has to show that it can take on al-Qaeda.
Mr Browns intervention upset Pakistan. A Foreign Ministry official said that, according to their intelligence, bin Laden was in Afghanistan, not Pakistan. If the US or Britain have information about him being in Pakistan they should share it, he said. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistani High Commissioner in London, said that his countrys fight against the Taliban had resulted in many losses. We are doing what we can. We have carried out two very big military operations at enormous cost to the country. He added: The people of Pakistan want its allies to do more. If you provide us with equipment and expertise we will be able to be more successful we are successful, but more successful in tracking down the al-Qaeda leadership.
Mr Brown will hold a video conference with President Obama today to discuss their troop announcements. The British Prime Minister will criticise Pakistan later in a Commons statement confirming that an extra 500 British troops will be sent to Afghanistan, bringing the total to 9,500.
On Tuesday Mr Obama will say that more than 30,000 extra American troops will be sent. He, too, will refer to Pakistan, although officials said that Mr Browns message was his own, rather than a co-ordinated one.
Sources close to Mr Brown said that he had gone public because it was time for Pakistan to step up to the plate. He and America have made demands on Karzai. He has organised the London conference [on the future of Afghanistan]. He has made demands on other allies to put up another 5,000 troops. Now it is time for Pakistan to be told openly that it has not come up to the mark.
Mr Brown announced the international conference, to be held in London on January 28, at which Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, will be asked to commit himself to milestones for beefing up his army, police and local governance to prepare for the district-by-district transition of power in the countrys 34 provinces.
Mr Karzai will be expected to commit himself to benchmarks for providing 50,000 additional troops for training, improving the capacity of the police force and putting in place governors at regional and district level who are free from corruption and can deliver services and security to Afghans.
Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, told BBC Ones Politics Show: Our biggest problem with Pakistan is getting the Pakistan Government to focus on dealing with not just the Pakistan Taleban but the Afghan Taleban.Pakistan has a number of problems: it has basic economic problems; it has got endemic political problems; it has got the fact that its military tends to face towards India and is prepared for state-on-state conflict and does not really have the capabilities for the sort of anti-terrorist measures that we want.
The international community has to give Pakistan a lot of help if Pakistan is to fulfil the role we want it to do.(The Times)