TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, 7 March 2005 — Pakistan’s president yesterday said he would not allow Uzbek terrorists to use his country’s territory to launch attacks on the ex-Soviet nation.

Radical groups that the government have linked to Al-Qaeda have targeted Uzbekistan in recent years. More than 50 people died last year. One group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is believed to have found shelter in Pakistan’s largely lawless border areas.

Visiting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf signed an agreement with this ex-Soviet country on fighting terrorism.

“I have assured President (Islam Karimov) that Pakistan will not allow the use of its soil by any terrorists from Uzbekistan ... and we will act against them,” Musharraf said during a visit to the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Musharraf also signaled that Pakistan would be ready to extradite any alleged Uzbek terrorists captured in Pakistan.

“We ought to have a very effective extradition treaty which will ensure an institutional arrangement on extraditing any terrorists from each other’s countries to our respective countries,” he said.

Uzbekistan last year saw a series of attacks that killed more than 50 people that authorities blamed on radical groups based in Pakistan.

“The Uzbek people know that people who carried out bloody acts in Uzbekistan are now hiding in Pakistan, and the efforts by Musharraf’s government shows real bravery,” Karimov said.

Musharraf and Karimov held talks focused on bolstering economic ties and developing transport and communications links between the two countries. Landlocked Uzbekistan hopes to use Pakistani sea ports as a trade gateway, Karimov said.

Pakistan has long planned to build road and rail links with Central Asian states and a pipeline to carry gas from Turkmenistan, but instability in Afghanistan has kept those projects from getting off the ground.

Musharraf also expressed interest that his country would like to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and asked Karimov’s support for Pakistani membership in this regional organization, which comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Musharraf is due to visit ancient Uzbek city of Samarkand today and will leave for Kyrgyzstan the same day, officials said.

The visit comes as Pakistan and its archrival India compete for influence in the former Soviet Central Asia.

Bombs Explode in Pakistani City

Meanwhile, two homemade bombs exploded in a southwestern Pakistani city, shattering windows but injuring no one, police said yesterday.

The first bomb went off Saturday night in a field behind an empty school in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Balochistan province, police chief Pervez Rafi Bhatti said. The explosion shattered windows at the school and several at nearby homes.

An hour later another bomb exploded at a park in the same neighborhood, but there was no damage, he said.

No one claimed responsibility for either explosion, the latest in a series of small bombings in Quetta and elsewhere in Balochistan which have targeted government installations, railroads and security forces in recent weeks.

Authorities blame renegade tribesmen opposed to government plans to build new military garrisons and several other projects in Balochistan.

Local tribesmen are accused of carrying out the attacks to press demands for an increase in royalties for resources extracted from their territories. Ethnic-based Baloch leaders deny allegations of involvement in the violence.

Authorities have arrested dozens of suspects in connection with the bombings in recent days.