By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
SINGAPORE -- Pakistan's military chief on Saturday defended his country's fight against terrorism, saying Pakistan had committed more forces and garnered more success in the struggle than any other nation.
Gen. Ehsan Ul Haq said at a regional security forum that Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 troops to flush out remnants of al-Qaida, the Taliban and their local supporters along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and adjoining tribal areas.
Pakistan's intelligence agencies and security forces have provided "more support, captured more terrorists, and committed more troops than any other nation in the global war on terror," said Ul Haq, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
A surge of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern provinces along the Pakistan border, has killed more than 400 people since May 17, mostly militants.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has implied that much of the violence originates in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions and said Pakistani religious schools were teaching students to go to Afghanistan to burn down schools or medical clinics.
Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has rejected the claims.
Ul Haq said Pakistan's support had been crucial to the success of U.N. and international peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.
He said Pakistan had paid a heavy price in lives and economic losses, pointing to repeated assassination attempts against Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and other leaders.
"In fact, over the last five years, Pakistan has borne the main brunt of al-Qaida terrorism," Ul Haq said.
At the meeting in Singapore Saturday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld lavished praise on Musharraf's anti-terrorism campaign but sidestepped charges that Islamabad has not cracked down on Taliban fighters hiding along the Afghan border.
