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CNN Saturday Morning News

Musharraf Calls for Crackdown on Terrorism

Aired March 23, 2002 - 08:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The president of Pakistan is calling for a crackdown on terrorism after recent attacks against Americans. With the rising threat of violence in the region, the U.S. State Department is ordering all non-essential personnel out of Pakistan.

CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi joins us live from Islamabad via videophone with details -- Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT:. Well, Miles, that's right. The president addressing the nation today on Pakistan day. One of the topics he addressed was terrorism here in Pakistan, reiterating the government's commitment to fighting terrorism, saying that it will go to any lengths to do that.

Now, although there was no direct reference to the grenade attack on a church here in Islamabad last week that left five people dead, including two Americans, and wounding dozens of others, the president did make reference to intelligence units here, saying that the units here need to be more vigilant, more involved in preventing such accidents, such incidents, rather, than cleaning, just cleaning up afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTAN:. The government's responsibility is to take care of the people of Pakistan. I'm fully aware of it. And for this, we are ready to recognize terrorists and get rid of it and use all possible means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QURAISHI:. Now, the president says that irresponsible officials would not be spared. Now, that could be a reference to what we saw earlier this week following that church attack, the dismissal of the Islamabad police chief as well as four other high ranking police officials. This speech a little bit different from what we heard last in January, with the militant crackdown, the president saying, though, however, that he was going to be vigilant in restoring security to Pakistan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN:. Ash-Har, just give us a sense of the political tightrope that General Musharraf has to walk as he tries to thwart this effort which is really embedded in his security forces which might be sympathetic toward the Taliban or al Qaeda. It's not an easy task, is it?

QURAISHI:. No, absolutely not. It's a very thin line. He's got to be careful as to what he does and what he says and how much commitment he takes away from these intelligence agents, who do have close ties with militant groups. That's one of the things that they had to monitor.

But at this point the intelligence agencies, he says, need to be more vigilant in preventing terroristic attacks regardless of what their affiliations may be or what groups they may be investigating, what groups they may be involved with, that terrorism from Pakistan needs to be eliminated and the intelligence agencies need to be a greater part of that effort -- Miles.

O'BRIEN:. Ash-Har Quraishi, thank you very much, joining us via video phone from Islamabad. We appreciate your report.

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