Author: Reuters
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: May 4, 2011
URL: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/uk-says-osama-must-have-had-pakistani-support/151160-2.html
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden must have
had a support network in Pakistan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said
on Tuesday, promising to continue to cooperate with the Pakistanis to fight
extremism.
The disclosure bin Laden had holed up in a
luxury compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, possibly for
five to six years, before he was killed in a US raid has prompted many US
lawmakers to demand a review of US aid to Pakistan.
Cameron said "the fact that bin Laden
was living in a large house in a populated area suggests that he must have
had a support network in Pakistan."
"We don't currently know the extent of
that network, so it is right that we ask searching questions about it. And
we will," he told Britain's parliament.
However, he said it was in Britain's national
interest to recognize that Britain and Pakistan shared the same struggle against
terrorism.
"That's why we will continue to work
with our Pakistani counterparts on intelligence gathering, tracing plots and
taking action to stop them. It's why we will continue to honor our aid promises...,"
he said.
If progress is made on reforms, British aid
to Pakistan will average 350 million pounds ($580 million) a year over the
next four years, the government says.
Britain needs Pakistani cooperation to help
bring an end to the conflict in Afghanistan, where it has some 9,500 troops.
Security cooperation with Pakistan is also
important because British officials say many terror plots affecting Britain
in recent years originated in mountainous areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Cameron said Britain must be more vigilant
than ever about security threats following the killing of bin Laden.
Speaking to the BBC earlier, Cameron said
bin Laden's death was unlikely to speed up the withdrawal of British troops
from Afghanistan. Britain aims to have its combat troops out of Afghanistan
by 2015.
"It is clearly a helpful development,
I don't think it will necessarily change any timetables, but we should use
it as an opportunity to say to the Taliban, now is the moment to separate
yourself from al Qaeda, to give up violence, to accept the basic tenets of
the Afghan constitution," Cameron said.
