Failure is Not An option in War Against Terror: Asif Zardari

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 10:26 am

Failure is Not An option in War Against Terror: Asif Zardari WASHINGTON: “Failure is not an option” in Pakistan’s battle against terrorism, President Asif Ali Zardari said in an op-ed piece published in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal.

“This is an existential battle. If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option,” the president said a day after a Mumbai-style attack on members of Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore killed eight people including six Pakistani policemen and two civilians. Tuesday’s attack, said Zardari, “shows once again the evil we are confronting.”

Speaking for his government, Zardari also said, “We have not and will not negotiate with extremist Taliban and terrorists,” adding that the recently struck deal in the troubled Swat Valley was not with the Taliban. “The clerics with whom we have engaged are not Taliban,” he said, adding that Pakistan had made clear to the clerics “that it is their responsibility to rein in and neutralize Taliban and other insurgents” in their area.

Zardari warned, however, that “our security forces will act accordingly” if the Swat Valley authorities were unable to control the insurgents.