MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, 18 February 2007 — Pakistan has renewed a call for neighboring Afghanistan to open dialogue with Taleban insurgents to stem the rise in violence in the war-torn country.
Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, a former general who is now governor of the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, warned the Taleban-led insurgency was already turning into a “liberation war” in Afghanistan.
It is “developing into some kind of nationalist movement, a resistance movement, some sort of liberation war against the coalition forces,” he told journalists in the provincial capital of Peshawar.
Aurakzai was speaking ahead of a rare media trip to North Waziristan, an area used by Taleban militants close to the Afghanistan border.
A group of journalists flew yesterday to Miranshah, the main city in North Waziristan where thousands of troops are deployed to stop Taleban cross-border movement, for a briefing by senior army officials.
In September Aurakzai engineered a peace deal with militants in North Waziristan, evoking suspicions from Kabul and the commanders of international forces battling the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has strongly defended the agreement, saying it has helped curtail infiltration across the porous frontier into Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has openly accused Pakistan of fostering an insurgency by the Taleban, while Islamabad’s western allies have shown increasing concern over its pacts with the militants. The conflict killed 4,000 people last year.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Pakistan on Monday and sought the cooperation of President Pervez Musharraf for a planned spring offensive against the Taleban.
Two weeks ago Musharraf urged NATO and coalition forces to do more to tackle the Taleban, saying that Pakistan could not win the fight against militancy on its own.
Pakistani authorities say alienation is increasing among Afghanistan’s majority Pashtun community straddling both sides of the border because of lack of representation in the ruling set up and development in the region.
However, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed disappointment Friday with a deal between Pakistan and pro-Taleban militants.
In September, Pakistan signed an agreement with tribal leaders in North Waziristan region, along the border with Afghanistan, meant to stop cross-border attacks. The US military says the area has since become an even stronger haven for Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Rice told lawmakers that the Untied States has tried to Musharraf’s plan to empower tribal leaders to deal with cross-border problems.
But, she said, “Frankly, there have been some problems and some disappointments with that plan.”
Pakistan insists it is doing all it can to stop cross-border militancy and has deployed about 80,000 troops along its rugged border with Afghanistan. Rice said the United States has been clear with Musharraf that he must do something about cross-border problems.
