ISLAMABAD, 16 February 2006 — Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai arrived here yesterday for talks on a range of issues including regional security and on-going cooperation in the war against terror.
During his stay, he will hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on further expansion of bilateral relations and strengthening a close liaison in the war against terror.
Afghanistan is expected to press Pakistan on stopping Taleban rebels launching cross-border attacks and suicide bombings when the leaders of the neighboring countries meet, officials said. A spate of recent suicide attacks that Afghan officials believe were planned in Pakistan, claiming dozens of lives, have soured relations — always touchy because of Afghan assertions that Taleban rebels find sanctuary in Pakistan. Karzai will urge Pakistan to show the same commitment to defeat Taleban rebels based on its side of the rugged frontier as it does in fighting Al-Qaeda, his spokesman Khaleeq Ahmed said Tuesday.
Over the weekend, the chief of Afghanistan’s spy agency, the National Security Directorate, appeared to blame Pakistan in comments to the Afghan parliament. “Our government should pressure other countries, especially one country in particular, where there are training camps, stockpiles of explosives and financial support,” Amarullah Saleh said.
Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, a former Taleban stronghold, said last week that Pakistan was behind a recent spate of bombings in the province and that many of the attackers were Pakistanis.
Pakistan, a former supporter of the Taleban but now a key US ally in the war on terror, has deployed 70,000 troops along the Afghan border, and says it does its best to stop cross-border attacks. And it has complaints of its own about the situation along the frontier.
The issue of Pakistani civilian casualties from rockets and artillery fire originating from Afghanistan will be raised with Karzai, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said Monday.
Rockets or shells reportedly fired from Afghanistan last weekend hit a nomad family’s tent in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, killing two women and injuring at least four children.
Before Karzai’s arrival, Pakistan yesterday released 562 Afghans who had been jailed in Karachi for up to six months as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, a prison official said. Karzai is scheduled to meet Aziz today before he returns to Kabul tomorrow. — Additional input from agencies.
