[Dawn] Military officials from Pakistain and Afghanistan have agreed to hold more high-level talks to defuse a row over a series of attacks across their mostly non-existent border, the Afghan defence ministry said Saturday.Officials from both militaries and from the United States met Thursday in the northwest Pak city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to discuss a spike in tensions on the lawless border that has allegedly killed dozens of villagers in recent weeks.
Afghan and Pak delegations agreed to do what they could "to stop and prevent repetition of the attacks, and to pave the ground for further strengthening of mutual, friendly relations" said ministry front man Mohammad Zahir Azimi in a statement.
"There should be more coordination and high level talks between the authorities of the two countries to seek solutions for the present problems and future issues," he said.
".... Higher delegations will hold talks with each other in the near future." On Friday the Pakistain army said it had proposed a hotline to create one single point of contact with all Afghan cops, including the border police.
Regular meetings between commanders from both sides would also take place to diffuse tensions, along with interaction between tribal elders.
The escalating border war has inflamed tensions at a key juncture as Afghans and Americans reach out to the Taliban for peace talks.
For weeks, security forces on both sides of the unmarked border have issued claim and counter-claim over cross-border rocket and guerilla attacks that have reportedly killed dozens of residents and forced hundreds of others to flee.
Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
has told Pakistain's army chief Ashfaq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
the attacks must stop, while the Paks summoned the Afghan ambassador and Pak Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
has complained back to Karzai.
For years the neighbours have traded accusations over the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked hard boyz embedded in both countries, who criss cross the porous, unmarked border and fight security forces from both governments.
The row is exacerbated by the fact that Afghanistan disputes the 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) Durrand Line, the 19th century demarcation of the border that separates Pashtun families and tribes.