ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON, 9 February — Pakistan and Afghanistan buried the hatchet yesterday, putting behind them Islamabad’s support for the Taleban, with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledging full backing for the new administration. Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, on his first visit to Pakistan since taking office, said when he talked of past relations he remembered Islamabad’s help in ending the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of the country.
Pakistan is deeply distrusted by many Afghans for bankrolling the now-ousted Taleban, but after their talks yesterday the two leaders were at pains to point out a new era had been established. Karzai called for continued foreign assistance until all terrorist cells in Afghanistan were destroyed, and said "it could not have been possible to defeat terrorism ... and other evil in Afghanistan without Pakistan’s help."
"President Musharraf referred to a little bit of the past that was ‘with misperceptions’, I told him we were not talking of that little bit past but we in Afghanistan were talking of a past that was filled with tremendous help from Pakistan." Musharraf in turn gave his "complete assurance... Pakistan will remain with Afghanistan in all its endeavors to improve the lot of Afghanistan."
"Pakistan is extremely interested in having a peaceful, stable, united and prosperous Afghanistan as its brotherly neighbor," he said at their joint press conference. "We wish to conduct our relations with Afghanistan based on principles of sovereign equality, non-interference and mutual interest."
Pakistan had been the principal supporter of the Taleban regime until the Sept. 11 atrocities, blamed on the Afghan militia’s "guest" Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network of militants. It has since joined the US-led war on terror and pledged its full support for Karzai’s interim government as Afghanistan starts the massive task of rebuilding after more than 20 years of war.
Whether the show of good will displayed by the two leaders is lasting remains to be seen. Islamabad is still regarded with deep suspicion by the anti-Taleban Northern Alliance ethnic minority factions which dominate Karzai’s Cabinet. Alliance officials have claimed that senior Al-Qaeda members have sought shelter in Pakistan since the US airstrikes began on Oct. 7. Kabul is also regarded with suspicion by several Pakistani families demanding the release of some 3,000 relatives captured fighting with the Taleban and said to be kept in atrocious conditions. Karzai said the issue was being addressed slowly because of "the extreme caution" in screening prisoners.
Meanwhile, a US official said in Washington yesterday, a CIA-launched missile strike this week in an area previously occupied by Al-Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan appeared to have hit its target — a tall man who was being treated with great deference by those around him. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the individual was believed to be a senior Al-Qaeda official but would not say whether suspicions centered on Bin Laden, the 1.93m- (6-foot-four inch-) tall leader of Al-Qaeda.
"He was clearly someone who was senior," the official said. "But beyond that I can’t take you any further than that, and there are a number of senior Al-Qaeda guys who are taller than average." US military teams have not yet been able to reach the site of Monday’s attack to inspect the damage first hand. "As there always is with one of these strikes, there is always real interest in finding out what the results were," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters.
