ISLAMABAD: WikiLeakes claims that former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf had told US Senator John McCain and Representative Richard Renzi that he had no direct evidence but thought Al Qaeda leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were hiding in Bajaur Agency.
The US diplomatic cable sent by Charge d’Affair’s Peter Bodde on April 10, 2007, quoted Musharraf as saying that the landscape in the videos of Bin Laden and Zawahiri looked similar to Bajaur and the area provided comfort, high mountains, positive support, and an absence of US troops in neighbouring Konar.
Musharraf also voiced concern over Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s frequent pronouncements about Pakistan’s failure to capture Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Quetta. “Let me tell you,” Musharraf emphasized, “Omar would be mad to be in Quetta – he has too many troops to command in Southern Afghanistan to make it feasible. In fact, the only parts of Balochistan where there are Pakistani Taliban are in the province’s Afghan refugee camps, which we are planning to shut down,” the cable quoted.
Another cable reveals quoting former US envoy Anne W Patterson as saying Pakistan had concerns that the US would again desert Islamabad after they get Bin Laden due to which Pakistan was hesitation to fully cooperate with its key ally. Patterson said the relationship between the two countries was one of co-dependency they grudgingly admit – “Pakistan knows the US could not afford to walk away, the US knows Pakistan cannot survive without our support”.
She said militants will exploit either weak civilian government or a return to military rule that lacks popular legitimacy, so “we should help the Zardari/Gilani government complete its full five-year term in office.
