Pakistani govt comes under fire over U.S. strike

Pakistani govt comes under fire over U.S. strike

ISLAMABAD (AFP): Pakistan's government is coming under mounting pressure from military and religious figures to come clean over whether it supplied vital information to the United States for last Thursday's missile strikes on Afghanistan.

Former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg, in a statement published yesterday, alleged the government allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to operate on Pakistani soil to track down Osama bin Laden, one of the targets of the attacks.

Beg demanded that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disclose what cooperation his government had given the U.S. and said American warships had been in Pakistani waters for about two weeks.

"The government should come out with the truth," demanded retired general Hamid Gul, former head of the military's Inter- Services Intelligence.

Gul said Saturday that U.S. cruise missiles aimed at Afghan guerrilla bases had violated Pakistani sovereignty by using its airspace.

"America has committed aggression against our territorial waters, sovereignty and airspace," he said, urging the government to demand an unconditional apology from Washington and break all relations if one was not forthcoming.

Islamabad has voiced its "indignation" at the U.S. raids on targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, calling them a violation of the sovereignty of independent states.

Osama, who is blamed for the Aug. 7 bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that left 257 dead, has promised retaliation for the strikes.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the government did not allow any use of its territory for the attack on what the U.S. called terrorist training bases in Afghanistan. But accusations persist.

The head of the religious Jamiat Ulema Islam party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said the government's "patriotism has become doubtful," adding it was a "security risk" and had lost the right to rule.

"Let Sharif swear on the Koran (the Moslem holy book) that no help was provided to the U.S.," said Rehman, who is known for his links to Afghanistan's hardline Taleban Islamic militia.

Defense experts quoted by The Muslim newspaper said either Pakistani radar systems were jammed or the strike happened with "prior information and consent" of the Pakistani authorities.

"The government has to admit either the country's security is not adequate to check an intruder or the intruder was allowed deliberately," one expert was quoted as saying.

Pakistan has said it did not detect the violation but has protested to Washington on the assumption that the missiles flew through its airspace.

The so-called "undetected" violation has raised the crucial question of how safe Pakistan's vital security installations are, the experts said.

Religious leaders have warned the government against any show of weakness in its dealings with the U.S. But one analyst who declined to be named said the government finds itself "precariously balanced on two stools."

It does not want to become embroiled in a diplomatic row with the United States, especially when U.S.-led sanctions following the May nuclear tests are hurting an economy already in desperate straits. At the same time the administration does not want to be too distant from public opinion.

The embarrassed government meanwhile fired its erring intelligence boss after having to retract a statement that one U.S. missile had killed six people on Pakistani soil.

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, director general of the Intelligence Bureau, was sacked a day after a foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan had protested to the United States over the incident but later withdrew the information.

The government said Ahmed was responsible for the blunder. It said no missile hit Pakistani territory.