Washington: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has promised to ensure, if elected, the release of Pakistani doctor, Shakeel Afridi, who helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trace Osama bin Laden.
"Yes, I do. I think I would get him out in two minutes," Trump said when asked if he would help free the doctor jailed for helping the US track down al-Qaeda leader bin Laden who was killed in a covert raid by US commandos in 2011.
"I would tell them let him out and I'm sure they would let him out," he added.
He reiterated that Pakistan takes advantage of US but ‘we get nothing in return’.
Stating that they (Pakistan) don’t have any respect for American President, he said, "Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan. We give a lot of money to Pakistan. But when you say they take advantage or they are no friend, nobody is a friend to us."
"They just take us like a bunch of suckers. And that's what my speech was about to a certain extent. It was also economic in terms of economic, relative to aid and the military. But Pakistan certainly takes advantage like everybody else. Nobody is different," Trump added.
On Afghanistan, he said that the United States needs to stay in Afghanistan because its immediate neighbour Pakistan has nuclear weapons which have to be protected.
The real estate tycoon said he would keep 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. "I would stay in Afghanistan. It's probably the one place we should have gone in the Middle East because it's adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons. So I think you have to stay and do the best you can, not that it's ever going to be great but I don't think we have much of a choice," he said.
"That's one place, frankly, instead of going to Iraq we probably should have gone there first. I would say in Afghanistan and only, again, because of its location next to Pakistan," Trump added.
"I hate doing it, I hate doing it so much. But, again, you have nuclear weapons in Pakistan so I would do it," Trump further said.
Recently, Trump had called Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world. In an interview, he had indicated that Pakistan needs to be denuclearise.
Trump had also said that ‘you have to get India involved to check Pakistan’. "They (India) have their own nukes and have a very powerful army. They seem to be the real check... I think we have to deal very closely with India to deal with it (Pakistan)."
