KABUL/ISLAMABAD, 7 September 2006 — The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday pledged to work harder to stamp out Taleban activity on both sides of their common border.
There should be no “Taleban activity on our side of the border or across the border in Afghanistan,” visiting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told reporters after talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.
“If we don’t trust each other, there is no moving forward,” said Musharraf, who arrived in Kabul earlier yesterday for a landmark two-day visit.
“The only course left is to have trust — kill mistrust, don’t blame each other.” The Pakistani leader also gave reassurances that a “peace deal” reached by Islamabad on Tuesday with pro-Taleban militants in the North Waziristan tribal belt along the Afghan border was intended to curb militant activity.
Musharraf’s government accepted demands to remove pickets set up by the military in the area, while the militants agreed to disarm or expel foreign Al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
Musharraf earlier said in Islamabad he wanted stronger ties with Afghanistan and his trip aimed to ensure that both countries enjoyed the “best of relations” in all fields, including “counterterrorism operations.”
Musharraf’s visit comes amid accusations by both his country and Afghanistan that the other is doing too little to crack down on militants operating on either side of their porous, mountainous frontier where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding.
On arrival in Kabul, the Pakistani leader, accompanied by his wife, 10 federal and three state ministers, was greeted at the airport by Kabul’s governor before being sped away in a motorcade for talks with Karzai.
Musharraf told state-run television in Islamabad, “I am very conscious that happenings in our two countries directly affect the region, even the Central Asian republics. “I look forward to much improved, much stronger ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
‘Past Indian Aggression
Justifies Stronger Defense’
President Musharraf said yesterday that an attack by archrival India 41 years ago made his nation realize that it should strengthen its defenses “at all costs.” “Pakistan is a nuclear and missile power,” President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said in a statement released to mark Defense Day. “We are now a country having an impregnable defense.”
Defense Day commemorates a 17-day war with India over Kashmir. Islamabad claims victory in the 1965 conflict, saying its forces foiled an attack by a much larger Indian Army. India says Pakistan started the war in the disputed Himalayan region.
“The aggression that we faced 41 years ago made us conscious about the need to strengthen the defense of our country at all costs,” Musharraf said.
“We realized that big countries seeking to impose their hegemony pay little heed to international laws and could violate the sanctity of borders of smaller neighbors with impunity,” the military leader said.
