Pakistan coalition leaders to devise anti-terror strategy: Gilani
Monday, 21 July 2008
ISLAMABAD, July 20 (AFP) - Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition will meet in Islamabad next week to devise a comprehensive strategy to root out terrorism and extremism, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said late Saturday.
Gilani's announcement of the meeting set for Wednesday comes amid intense pressure from the United States and other Western allies to crack down on Taliban forces on its side of the porous border with Afghanistan.
"The global war against terrorism is our own war and we have to fight it," Gilani said in his first televised address to the nation four months after taking up his post in the new coalition government.
"An extraordinary summit meeting of coalition leaders will devise a comprehensive strategy to root out terrorism and extremism from the country on July 23," he said.
Next week's meeting comes against the backdrop of an ongoing operation against the extremist Taliban in the increasingly troubled northwestern district of Hangu.
Pakistan's new government has engaged in peace talks with Islamic militants aimed at halting the fighting in the country's northwest.
But the United States, Pakistan's main ally in the "war on terror," has said it did not approve of those negotiations, which include top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused of masterminding last year's assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Gilani's announcement of the meeting set for Wednesday comes amid intense pressure from the United States and other Western allies to crack down on Taliban forces on its side of the porous border with Afghanistan.
"The global war against terrorism is our own war and we have to fight it," Gilani said in his first televised address to the nation four months after taking up his post in the new coalition government.
"An extraordinary summit meeting of coalition leaders will devise a comprehensive strategy to root out terrorism and extremism from the country on July 23," he said.
Next week's meeting comes against the backdrop of an ongoing operation against the extremist Taliban in the increasingly troubled northwestern district of Hangu.
Pakistan's new government has engaged in peace talks with Islamic militants aimed at halting the fighting in the country's northwest.
But the United States, Pakistan's main ally in the "war on terror," has said it did not approve of those negotiations, which include top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who is accused of masterminding last year's assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.