Karzai: We don’t want to kill Pakistanis

KABUL does not want to kill innocent civilians by retaliating against Pakistani attacks on Afghan territory.

In the past month, Pakistani forces have fired about 700 missiles, rockets and artillery shells into Afghanistan’s eastern and southeastern provinces, including Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktia. The attacks have killed about 50 people, injured dozens and caused scores to flee their homes.

The Afghan government has discussed the issue with Pakistani officials.  Pakistan says its troops were not involved in the attacks and blamed Afghan insurgents for the shelling.

“Afghanistan wishes for the wellbeing of the people of Pakistan, and there should be no more attacks from Pakistan on Afghan territories,” Karzai said in a statement issued from his palace.

The President said he had discussed the matter with his Pakistani counterpart, and that the issue needed to be resolved through friendly discussions and wisdom.

He said the attacks had left a number of innocent people dead, wounded and displaced.  He urged the people of Afghanistan to stay calm over the cross border attacks.

The Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan’s parliament, asked the government on Monday to cut off diplomatic relations with Pakistan. They said that Pakistan should officially apologize and compensate Afghanistan for damages and losses caused by the attacks.

The lower house also asked the UN and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the attacks.

myn/ma

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