QUETTA, 26 October 2003 — Pakistan needs more US help to fight Taleban and Al-Qaeda insurgents along its lengthy southwestern border with Afghanistan, where rebels are stepping up their activities, Pakistan’s military and other officials said.
“Whatever we got from the United States is just peanuts,” Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistan army’s spokesman, told reporters Friday in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan is fencing its porous western border to stop infiltration, following complaints from the Afghan government that its enemies were finding safe haven in Pakistan’s unruly and sparsely inhabited border regions.
To counter the accusations, the Pakistan military arranged a series of briefings and a tour for reporters of the normally off-limits area Friday and yesterday to support its contention that it is using all available resources to stop rebels from using its soil against Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s fledging government.
Maj. Mohammed Ashraf, a senior government official in Quetta, said 207 checkpoints have been set up along the border, and a 41-km-long embankment was being built in the area of Chaman, a border town about 135 km (85 miles) northwest of Quetta.
Washington has provided Pakistan five helicopters, vehicles and other equipment to guard the Afghan border, but Sultan said more helicopters, unmanned surveillance planes and equipment are needed.
The Pakistan-Afghan border runs 3,300 km from the Himalayas in Pakistan’s northern territories to the desert of Balochistan.
Sultan said the existing facilities are not enough to guard such a long border, which is unmarked at several points.
It is the first time since independence in 1947 that Pakistani troops have been deployed in the tribal border regions, largely undeveloped areas which follow tribal law and the authority of tribal elders and where the federal government has little sway.
Pakistan switched from supporting Afghanistan’s Taleban regime to aiding the US war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but many Pakistani tribesmen still sympathize with the Taleban.
So far, Pakistan has captured more than 450 Al-Qaeda members and Taleban who fled Afghanistan, including three of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden’s top lieutenants who are suspected of planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
On Friday, gunmen opened fire at a police checkpoint in a remote tribal region in the province, killing two policemen and a seven-year-old boy.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack in the Bugti region, about 300 km (180 miles) southwest of Quetta. Police said they were still investigating.
“We do not know who is behind this attack,” said Mohammed Mushtaq, a local police officer. He said the boy was standing near the policemen when he was shot.
