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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan won't let militants cross into Afghanistan: Ghani |
| 2008-05-27 |
| Pakistan is determined to stop militants crossing its border to fight Western troops in Afghanistan and is activating tribal leaders to squeeze out the militants, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani said on Monday. Ghani defended the government’s efforts to bring peace to the Tribal Areas through talks, saying that Pakistan was committed to Afghanistan’s security. “Pakistan is fully committed to interdicting cross-border movement of terrorists,” he told Reuters in an interview. “In no way can we allow militant forces to use Pakistani territory as a base to operate in Afghanistan or anywhere.” A re-think was needed in the war against the Taliban, Ghani said. “This war against these extremists ... has now entered the seventh year and I feel that we need to actively review our strategies,” he said. “What we need to do is to reduce the space available to these negative forces,” he added. Many Al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to Pakistan’s border lands, that have never come under the full control of any government, after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. There they were welcomed by the conservative Pashtun tribes who, since the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, had given refuge to Islamist fighters battling foreigners in Afghanistan. Winning over the tribes was crucial, Ghani said. Isolate militants: The Pakistani government is not talking to the militants but to the Pashtun elders in the border areas in an effort to get them to exert their authority and isolate the militants, the governor said. “We are talking to the majority tribes, their leaders, because it is their area and they are citizens of Pakistan and we are activating them so that they take control of their area and they reduce the space available to these militants,” Ghani said. Tribal leaders would be obliged to ensure militants don’t launch attacks in Afghanistan and the government would have the right to take action in case of any violation, he added. Expecting peace: Ghani said he expected a deal to be struck soon in the South Waziristan region, where the government has been negotiating with elders of the Mehsud tribe. A militant chief from the tribe, Baitullah Mehsud, has emerged as Pakistan’s most notorious militant commander, accused by the government of a string of attack and suicide blasts, including the one in which Benazir Bhutto was killed in December. Mehsud, who leads an umbrella groups of Pakistani militant groups, said on Saturday fighting with the Pakistani government should end, but he vowed to carry on the jihad in Afghanistan. Another senior government official reiterated that any pact would aim to ensure an end to cross-border attacks. “No agreement will be signed without the provision of no cross-border terrorism,” the second official said. |
| Posted by:Fred |