ISLAMABAD, 24 June 2006 — Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf calls for better cooperation with war-shattered Afghanistan to defeat terrorism and bring about peace in the region, sources said. Musharraf made the remark while meeting visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta in the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States have formed a trilateral commission to coordinate counter terrorism efforts by the three allies in the “war on terror.” “The tripartite commission would be fully utilized as will be bilateral channels for that purpose,” an official statement said after the meeting between Kabul’s foreign minister and Musharraf.
“President Pervez Musharraf told the Afghan foreign minister the two countries should further increase cooperation in war against terrorism,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. Aslam provided no further details, but Musharraf’s comments came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said “foreign factors” were partly to blame for his country’s continued instability and violence.
According to another government official, Musharraf told Spanta that some Afghans were training and arming local tribesmen waging a violent campaign in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province where the country’s main gas fields are located.
“He did complain about it,” said the official on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue. Spanta, who made his first official visit to Pakistan yesterday, said he hoped misunderstandings over the war on terrorism could be resolved.
Relations between the neighbors, both important US allies in the war on terrorism, deteriorated sharply this year after fresh Afghan accusations Taleban insurgents were able to operate from refuges in Pakistan.
