Pakistan urges action on safe haven

PESHAWAR

An Afghan Border Security soldier (2nd R) searches an Afghan man in this file photo. AFP photo.

Pakistan’s top military commander fighting militants in the northwest Oct. 29 said Pakistan will act against terrorist safe havens and urged NATO and Afghanistan to do the same while a U.S. drone strike yesterday killed four militants in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, a hotbed of Taliban insurgents near the Afghan border, officials said.

Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik, who is supervising military operations in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told reporters that his troops would not leave the area until complete security had been ensured. “Pakistan will not tolerate any infiltration in its area. The Afghan government and NATO should not allow terrorists’ safe havens in Afghan provinces along the Pakistan border,” he said. Meanwhile, suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft fired six missiles at a vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal region Datta Khel area near the Afghan border yesterday, killing six alleged militants. Datta Khel is an important base for militants from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and also from al-Qaeda.

Compiled from AFP and AP stories by the Daily News staff.