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| India-Pakistan | |
| Militancy an Afghan problem, not ours, says Musharraf | |
| 2006-12-22 | |
| President General Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday militancy was an Afghan problem whose solution lay in Afghanistan. This solution should be similar to the solution Pakistan was trying it in its tribal areas through political and administrative measures, he added. “Any perception being created that the problem is in Pakistan and the solution is in Pakistan, and Afghanistan happens to be only a sideshow, is absolutely opposite,” the president told a gathering of the 17th annual dinner of the Pakistani Americans Public Affairs Committee (PAK-PAC) here. “The problem is in Afghanistan and its solution lies in Afghanistan ... there is no doubt in my mind, and this is the issue,” Gen Musharraf said. On the Pakistan side “we have to control the militant Taliban and to deal with them and Al Qaeda,” he said, adding that measures were being taken to ensure that no support was going across the border. Gen Musharraf said that military force alone would not end the Taliban problem and referred to the peace agreement signed between local authorities and tribal elders in North Waziristan that was aimed at ending support to militant activities across the border in Afghanistan. However, he added that if the government felt that political and administrative measures were not effective, it still had the military option.
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| Posted by:Fred |