The Pakistani Army on Friday rejected as baseless reports in the US media that elements in Pakistan’s security apparatus had tipped off terrorists in Waziristan Agency to help them get away from the purported improvised-explosive device (IED) factories in the region.
US media reports quoted unnamed American officials as saying that CIA chief Leon Panetta had presented satellite photographs of two bomb-making factories to Pkaitsni officials during his recent visit. The US spies had asked the Pakistani intelligence to raid the factories several weeks ago. “When Pakistani troops showed up days later, the militants were gone, causing American officials to question whether the militants had been warned by someone on the Pakistani side,” The New York Times had said. The ISPR said in a statement that this “assertion is totally false and malicious and the facts on ground are contrary to it”.
He said the intelligence information was received regarding four compounds suspected of being used as IED-making facilities. “Operations were launched on all,” an ISPR spokesman said. He said two were found to have been used as IED-making facilities and were destroyed. “Information on the other two proved to be incorrect. Some people have been arrested and they are being probed,” the spokesman added. The New York Times had reported that shortly after the failed raids, the US Defence Department put on hold on a $300 million payment to Pakistan against the cost of deploying more than 100,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan.
