Musharraf deplores killing of Pakistanis in Iraq
PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf yesterday equated the killings of two citizens of his country by fighters in Iraq with the greatest disservice to Islam and humanity.
Musharraf was joined by his Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in condemning the Wednesday killings, the news of which they said they received with "great distress and anguish."
Besides, due to pressure from the United Nations (UN), a political conference aimed at charting Iraq's future scheduled to hold tomorrow has been postponed until mid-August.
"Those who have committed this crime have caused the greatest harm both to humanity and Islam," the leaders said in a statement.
The two hostages were identified as Raja Azad Khan and Sajjad Najeem, Both came from the Pakistan side of Kashmir and were working for a Kuwaiti branch of the Saudi Al Tamimi group.
They went missing last week. "Pakistan has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and believes that such barbaric acts can never be justified," the leaders said.
They reiterated Pakistan's firm commitment to the security and independence of Iraq, hoping that the fellow moslem country would seek complete security and stability free of internal and external turmoil."
Pakistan, a key ally in the United States-led war on terror, has long been wooed by Washington to send troops to Iraq.
But officials say Pakistan can consider sending troops only if other moslem nations do, and the Iraqi government requests it.
Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said Pakistan had not made a decision on committing troops to Iraq.
"We had repeatedly told the kidnappers that we have not yet taken a decision on sending troops to Iraq but despite that they have killed both," Kasuri told the National Assembly, parliament's lower house.
Such a deployment will be hugely unpopular with many Pakistanis and observers saying the killings of the hostages will make any decision more difficult for Musharraf, who already face stiff opposition from hard-line Islamic groups for his role in the war on terror.
Al Tamimi does work in Iraq for U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown and Root, a contractor for the U.S. military.
Last month, another Pakistani, Amjad Hafeez, working with Kellogg, Brown and Root, was also seized, but his captors released him apparently swayed by an impassioned appeal from his mother.
The UN which backed the conference as a way of building national unity said it should be held before the end of July, has recently pushed for a delay to allow more time to plan such an important gathering and make it more inclusive.`
Yesterday, members of the preparatory committee met a UN representative in Iraq, Jamal Benomar, and Iraq's President Ghazi al-Yawar and agreed a conditional postponement.
"The conference has been delayed, we are writing the statement saying that now," a source on the committee stated. A second source sitting with him said it had been put off until August 15.
Other sources said there were several UN conditions attached to the agreement. One is that the United Nations should be less interventionary, playing more of an advisory role, and another is that a more senior UN representative should be in Iraq.
Pressure had been mounting for days for the event to be put off. As well as concern that arrangements for a conference that would draw 1,000 delegates to Baghdad from across the country had been too hasty, there are serious security fears.
Wednesday's suicide bombing north of Baghdad, which killed at least 70 people and fighting south of the capital in which more than 40 died, have clearly underlined those concerns.
There was a risk that insurgents and criminals may kidnap foreigners and senior Iraqis and the delegates could also be their targets.
