9/11 panel’s report biased, charges Pak

Islamabad has rejected the US 9/11 Commission’s report, calling it ‘‘biased, partial and completely unscientific’’....

Islamabad has rejected the US 9/11 Commission’s report, calling it ‘‘biased, partial and completely unscientific’’. The report claimed that Pakistan had helped the Taliban regime in Afghanistan shelter Al Qaeda members.

Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said the Commission had chosen to interpret history selectively and that it had processed the data in an ‘‘unscientific’’ manner.

‘‘We have had no truck with Al Qaeda and its associates. We had relations with the Taliban government in Kabul and earlier we had relations with mujahideen who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,’’ Khan said.

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The Commission’s analysis was ‘‘confused and distorted’’, he said. Khan added that Pakistan could not be held responsible for the 9/11 attacks or be blamed for Al Qaeda’s presence in its neighbourhood.

‘‘Al Qaeda moved into our neighbourhood and made Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region volatile. Shall we hold Pakistan culpable? (That) does not make sense. Therefore we think that this view by the 9/11 Commission is biased, partial and completely unscientific,’’ he said.

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