[DAWN] Using some of the strongest language to date, Pakistain warned the Taliban on Tuesday that their violent acts in Afghanistan in future would be treated as terrorism.Pakistain and Afghanistan, during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's day-long visit to Kabul, agreed on a series of actions against the Lions of Islam on their respective sides, according to reports from the Afghan capital.
Addressing a joint media conference with Afghanistan's Caped President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
, Mr Sharif said: "Pakistain strongly condemns increase in violence and Operation Azm offensive by Afghan Taliban. Continuation of such offensive and attacks will be construed as terrorist acts and we condemn such attacks in strongest terms."
Islamabad had recently condemned the Taliban's Spring Offensive, but it was the first time for Pakistain to say that violence by the Lion of Islam group from now on would be treated as terrorism.
"We stand in strong solidarity with Afghanistan. I assure you that the enemies of Afghanistan cannot be friends of Pakistain," the prime minister said.
Mr Sharif, who was accompanied by Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif and other senior foreign policy, military and intelligence aides, visited Kabul at a time when the goodwill that emerged in the relationship after the change of government in Kabul seemed to be fading away due to fresh Taliban violence and the promised reconciliation process' failure to take off. Afghan leaders had started voicing their frustration with Pakistain on this count.
The prime minister is believed to have taken the army chief and Inter-Services Intelligence
...the Pak military
intelligenceagency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir...
chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar along with him to reassure the Afghans that both civilian and military leadership supported the peace initiative.
The categorical statement condemning the Taliban violence and treating it as terrorism in future was aimed at dispelling the doubts among the Afghan leaders that Pakistain had been soft towards the Taliban and their counter-terrorism operation was only against the Pak Taliban.
This is, however, not the first time that a Pak prime minister took his army and intelligence chiefs along with him on a trip to Kabul. In April 2011, then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ...
too had led a similar delegation. But, the resolve on both sides this time was much stronger than before.
Mr Sharif reiterated Pakistain's support for an intra-Afghan grinding of the peace processor, but at the same time said that he and President Ghani had agreed that peace in the region was not possible without crushing terrorism through a "a comprehensive and coordinated strategy."