Daily Times, April 14, 2006
Karzai and Singh urge Pakistan to do more in fight against terror
NEW DELHI: Afghan President Hamid Karzai ended a trip to India on Thursday in which leaders of both countries called for a pooling of resources to fight terrorism and urged that Pakistan join their efforts.
Karzai, on his second visit to India in two years, won his host’s backing for his efforts to counter terrorism in Afghanistan, said an official statement following talks between him and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh.
Singh suggested at a news conference on Monday that New Delhi, Kabul and Islamabad pool resources to curb terrorism which he said was affecting all three countries. “Terrorism today has acquired new dimensions and I find in our region even Pakistan is not immune from terrorism,” Singh told reporters. So, there is need for pooling our knowledge, our experience, our intelligence-gathering activities in this region to deal effectively with this menace, he said, winning approval for his views from Karzai.
“All of us in this region are affected. And I very much hope that all of us in this region will join hands to fight this menace,” Karzai said. In February Karzai’s government gave Islamabad details of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, whom they said were based in Pakistan and were engineering the insurgency in Afghanistan. Pakistan dismissed the information as outdated and “ridiculous” and President Pervez Musharraf alleged Afghan intelligence was influenced by India.
During the visit, India also promised Afghanistan an extra 50 million dollars in aid, boosting India’s contribution to relief and rehabilitation to 650 million dollars. New Delhi says it would host the Second Regional Economic Cooperation Conference for Afghanistan in November. The conference will include the G8, Kabul’s neighbours and international organisations. AFP
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