Counter-terrorism: ‘Don’t make Pakistan a scapegoat’

UN Ambassador asks US not to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its setbacks in the Afghan war.

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan Ambassador to the UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon on Thursday asked the United States not to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its setbacks in the Afghan war, and called for recognising Islamabad’s role in combating terrorism.

In an interview with a major American television network, he said Pakistan captured and handed over three key people to the US authorities on September 5, that contributed to making the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack a safe event, but regretted that the American people were not told of the Pakistani help in this regard.  “Do you know why nothing happened (this year) on September 11 in New York?” Ambassador Haroon asked in the course of the interview with CBS network. “You gave us a list of three people, ‘help us find them,’ you said. Were people told in America that the reason that New York is safe is because Pakistan helped us capture these people?”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.