Pak military expecting to establish foothold in Waziristan by Dec: Qureshi
2 Nov 2009, 1115 Hrs

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Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 2 The Pakistani military is hoping to establish its foothold in South Waziristan, where a ground offensive against the Taliban is going on, by mid-December, the country's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said.

Qureshi said it would be difficult to give a timeframe for total military success, but "we would want to achieve our objectives as much as possible before the winter sets in."

"And it seems, as things are going on, that we might be able to do so ... I can't give you a date, but that area becomes very cold (by late December). We want to operate and establish our foothold before that," the Daily Times quoted Qureshi, as saying.

Qureshi, who is in Kuala Lumpur to attend a meeting of Islamic countries, told reporters that the army has faced less resistance than it had expected.

"The operation so far has been very successful. The resistance that we were expecting initially did not come with the same swiftness we were expecting. They (Taliban) are on the run. They are in retreat and there is disarray over there," he said.

Reacting to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remark that it was hard to believe that no one in Pakistan's government knew where the Al Qaeda leadership was hiding, Quereshi said Clinton was not being "negative or sarcastic", but "objective".

"We feel a troop surge which is well-coordinated with US would produce results. Pakistan's point of view is that it is not only he numbers that will count in Afghanistan. It's how you use those numbers," he pointed out. (ANI)

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