...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. ..and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined hands to lash out at Pakistain on terrorism as the subject took centre stage at the inauguration of the sixth Heart of Asia ministerial conference on Sunday in Amritsar.
The theme of the conference is 'enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region', and speculation was rife that India and Afghanistan would seek to pin Pakistain on terrorism.
Ashraf Ghani opened the conference by snubbing a $500 million pledge from Pakistain for development projects in Afghanistan, saying Afghanistan 'needs aid to fight terrorism', Times of India reported.
"We need to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism. Pakistain has pledged $500m for Afghanistan's development. This amount can be spent to contain extremism," Ghani said, directly addressing Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj
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...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in goodjihadis and
badjihadis as a matter of national policy...
who was in attendance at the two-day moot.
"Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties last year. This is unacceptable... Some still provide sanctuary for terrorists. As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in Pakistain, they wouldn't last a month," the Afghan president thundered.
"I don't want a blame game, I want clarifications on what is being done to prevent the export of terror," Ghani said.
He emphasised the need to "confront the fifth spectrum in the room, which is terrorism" and called on Pakistain to "verify cross-border activities".
The Afghan president appreciated India's support to Afghanistan, which he said comes "with no strings attached".
"The relationship is based on shared values and beliefs," Ghani said.