Ahmedabad: 17 crude bombs found

Zardari vows to 'suck oxygen out of Taliban's system'

New York: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zaradri has said that he wanted to suck life out the Taliban and other terrorists so that the menace of terrorism is uprooted for ever in his country. He said he wanted to fight out the Taliban because it were a cancer to the Pakistani society, which killed his wife.

“I will fight them because they are a cancer to my society, not because of my wife only, but because they are a cancer, yes, and they did kill the mother of my children, so their way of life is what I want to kill. I will suck the oxygen out of their system so there will be no Talibs,” the Daily Times quoted him as saying in an interview the International Herald Tribune.

“It is my decision that we will go after them, we will free this country. Yes, this is my first priority because I will have no country otherwise. I will be the president of what?” he added.

He further said that he wanted to co-operate with the US in training specialised counter-insurgency army units for use in the Tribal Areas. But, he warned against US military incursions inside Pakistan. “It is counter-productive and a political price is paid,” he said and added: “I mean business. We will train ourselves with the US present as trainers to raise the quality of certain forces.”

About his own life, he said that he was concerned but “not fearful” because “I don’t want to die so soon, I have a job to do.”

Zardari said his ‘new medicine’ for the Tribal Areas would include industrial investment, incentives for alternative crops to poppy and a firm message that ‘we are hitting the Taliban’ so make sure ‘your space is not being used by them’.

“I am not a warmonger. I am not interested in physical might, which is not the expression of my strength. I have many strengths, and one of them is that I can take pain, not give pain,” added the new Pakistani President.