Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday described as “pure fiction” a US media report about possible American plans to secure the country’s nuclear arsenal in the event of any extremist threat, saying no one should “underestimate” its capability to defend its national interests.
A statement issued by Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said the article “The Ally From Hell” in The Atlantic journal was “baseless and motivated”.
She dismissed the article as “pure fiction, baseless and motivated”.
“It is part of a deliberate propaganda campaign meant to mislead opinion. The surfacing of such campaigns is not something new. It is orchestrated by quarters that are inimical to Pakistan,” she said.
Janjua said: “No one should underestimate Pakistan’s will and capability to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests.”
The article had accused Pakistan of lying to the US administration in the campaign against terrorists and failing to detect the presence of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
It said that army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had asked officials of the Strategic Plans Division to take additional steps to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the wake of the US raid that killed bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2.
Meanwhile, the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front organisation for LeT which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is not included in a new list of 31 banned extremist and terrorist groups released by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.
The Interior Ministry released the list of banned organisations on Sunday as part of efforts to bar such groups from collecting the hides of animals sacrificed during the Eid-ul-Azha festival.
Hundreds of hides collected every year by members of the groups are sold to raise funds. Though the Lashkar-e-Taiba was included in the new list, the JuD was not on it. In the wake of the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, the UN Security Council had declared the JuD a front for the LeT. After the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani leaders like Interior Minister Rehman Malik insisted that the JuD had been banned. However, during a hearing in the Lahore High Court in 2009, a senior law officer admitted that no notification had been issued to ban the JuD.
The new list of banned groups includes Jaish-e-Mohammed and its front organisation Khuddam-ul-Islam, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its front organisation Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Jaafria Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi and Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Other groups on the list are Tehrik-e-Islami, Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul-Furqan, Khair-un-Naas International Trust, Islamic Students Movement of Pakistan, Islami Tehreek Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam, Ansar-ul-Islam, Haji Namdar Group, Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Republican Army, Balochistan Liberation Front, Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Balochistan Liberation United Front and Balochistan Musallah Difa Tanzeem.
New additions to the list included People’s Aman Committee of Karachi, Shia Tulaba Action Committee of Gilgit, Markaz Sabeel Organisation of Gilgit and Tanzeem-e-Naujawanan-e-Sunnat of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Interior Ministry warned that any members of the banned groups found collecting animal hides during Eid-ul-Azha would be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Members of the banned groups cannot assemble, maintain offices, continue their activities and operate bank accounts, an official statement said. The Interior Ministry said all persons who want to collect hides will have to obtain permission from the district administration chiefs or district magistrates. (PTI)