LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that terrorist and militants were deliberately created to achieve certain strategic goals and to counter rival ideology.

“Militants and militancy were not created in a vacuum; they have been the product of a deliberate policy to fight the rival ideology,” Zardari said.

During his wide ranging address at London’s International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Zardari blamed the so called ‘free world’ for exploiting the religious feeling to motivate Muslims across the globe for waging ‘jihad’.

Zardari pointed out that Afghan Jehadi leaders were described as “moral equivalents of George Washington.”

Zardari said Pakistan was determined not to let extremists use its territory as a launching pad for attacks against other countries.

“We are determined not to allow anyone to use our territory against a third country,” Zardari said.

He stressed that Islamabad was doing everything possible to counter the menace of terrorism and urged the international community to help Pakistan come out of the crises by providing it more military and humanitarian assistance.

“All I can say is that we are doing what we can. It is not something that can be done overnight. We urge the world to provide us with law-enforcement and counter-terrorism capabilities,” The Dawn quoted Zardari, as saying.

He reiterated that Pakistan has suffered most in the US led ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, as it has left the country with over 2.5 million drug addicts and a stunted economy.

Zardari also highlighted that Pakistan was pursuing a ‘conscious policy’ of building cooperative relationships with its neighbours like India and Afghanistan..

“We believe that regional dialogue and cooperation is the way forward,” he said. (ANI)