Pakistan on Monday urged the US and Afghanistan to take all possible measures for ensuring an end to the cross-border attacks by Taliban militants in the Pakistani territory.
The demand was made by a Pakistan Army delegation in Kabul during a meeting of the ‘Tripartite Commission’ comprising senior military representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the coalition forces in Afghanistan, said a security official while requesting anonymity.
Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, General Sher Mahammed Karimi of Afghanistan and American General David H Petraeus, who is also commanding the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, headed their respective delegations at the 34th meeting of the commission since its inaugural session in 2003.
The meeting reviewed the current security situation along the Pak-Afghan border and discussed the measures to improve effectiveness of the ongoing operations in their respective areas. The official said the recent cross-border attacks by Afghanistan-based militants inside Pakistan, including Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where a deadly terrorist attack killed dozens of Pakistanis, was discussed in detail during the meeting.
He said the Pakistani delegation told the top military commanders that blocking the cross-border movement of militants was not only a responsibility of Pakistan but also of the Afghan and the US-led foreign troops stationed on the other side of the frontier.
Karzai displeased: According to the AFP, Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked General Kayani to halt cross-border rocket attacks that have caused a row between the two countries. A statement issued by Karzai’s palace, after the meeting held at the presidential palace in Kabul, said he expressed concerns over the continuation of rocket attacks on the Afghan border region from Pakistani soil and demanded an immediate halt to these attacks. It claimed that Kayani had agreed to launch an investigation, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
Earlier, a spokesman said that Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul had been summoned over the issue, though adding: “We are sure it can be resolved.”
Pakistan Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas had accepted that he could not rule out that a few accidental rounds had been fired across the border by security forces targeting fleeing militants, but he cited his own casualties. Clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border are also likely to overshadow talks when the two countries meet along with the US on Tuesday to map out plans for reconciliation with the Taliban.
“It’s a way to coordinate efforts on reconciliation but also a way for Afghanistan and the US to state clearly to the government of Pakistan … to end the support by Pakistan of safe havens,” US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman told a news conference in Kabul.
Clinton calls Gilani: In order to defuse the tension, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton rang up Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and exchanged views on Pak-US relations and the upcoming trilateral core group meeting. An official statement said that Clinton had a focused discussion with Gilani on the prevailing tense situation on the Afghan border.