- ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan
on Saturday strongly refuted U.S. claims that American troops had the right
to enter Pakistan territory in pursuit of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban
fighters crossing from Afghanistan .
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- A U.S. warplane dropped a large bomb on disputed land
near the Afghan-Pakistan frontier last weekend after a man dressed as a
Pakistani border guard opened fire on U.S. troops inside Afghanistan, wounding
one.
-
- The U.S. military in Afghanistan said on Friday that
it had the right to cross into Pakistan in pursuit of suspected al Qaeda
and Taliban fugitives, adding that Pakistan had been aware of the "long-standing
policy."
-
- But Pakistan Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood
Kasuri said on Saturday: "Operations within Pakistani territory would
be conducted solely and exclusively by our own forces and in response to
decisions taken by Pakistan.
-
- "Our forces are fully capable of securing and protecting
Pakistan's borders," he added, reading from a prepared statement.
-
- According to Kasuri, Secretary of State Colin Powell
and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf spoke about the incident by telephone
on Friday and agreed it may have been due to a "misunderstanding at
the operational level on the ground."
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- "They reiterated the need to further strengthen
coordination to ensure that such incidents do not happen in future,"
he said.
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- Kasuri also underlined Pakistan's support for the "global
coalition against terrorism" and pointed to Washington's appreciation
of Islamabad's decision to back U.S. military action in Afghanistan and
its hunt for terrorists in Pakistan.
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- RED FACES, GRAY AREAS
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- But the incident has become a diplomatic headache both
for Washington and one of its key allies in the war on terror, and has
fueled already strong anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan.
-
- Hardline Islamic parties who tapped that sentiment to
make huge electoral gains in October seized on the clash as a case of Pakistan
ceding sovereignty to the world's only superpower.
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- They mobilized thousands of people to march through major
cities on Saturday to protest against U.S. military operations in the region
and a possible attack on Iraq.
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- The U.S. military said it had never exercised its "right"
to cross into Pakistan, and that the bomb its warplane dropped on a religious
seminary in the town of Angor Adda following Sunday's clash had landed
on Afghan, not Pakistan territory.
-
- Pakistani officials refuted that claim, although presidential
spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi told state television that there
were "ambiguous" areas along the porous border drawn up by the
British in 1893.
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- Musharraf threw his weight behind the U.S. military campaign
in Afghanistan and has allowed a handful of U.S. intelligence agents to
operate in Pakistan.
-
- Pakistan has 60-70,000 troops along its Afghan frontier
to help stop al Qaeda and Taliban members escaping the huge U.S.-led manhunt
in Afghanistan.
-
- But sympathy for the fugitives is strong among ethnic
Pashtuns who live on both sides of the border.
-
- The United States has expressed frustration at the apparent
ease with which many suspected militants have managed to cross from Afghanistan
into Pakistan.
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