Taliban slam Pakistan incursions

KABUL, blaming the Karzai administration for failing to contain the raids.

In a commentary on its website, the militant movement said there was no justification for the rocket and missile barrages from the neighbouring country into Afghanistan’s border areas.

The attacks were a brazen act that ran counter to all Islamic and international norms, as well as the principle of good neighbourly relations, the rebels said, demanding an immediate halt to civilian losses.

Branding the Karzai government as the second most corrupt administration in the world, the insurgents blasted Kabul’s inability to stop the bloodshed of innocent people and rescue Kunar residents.

A day earlier, the foreign ministry spokesman told a media briefing in Kabul that military officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan would meet soon on ways of effectively preventing cross-border incursions into eastern parts of the country.

Hundreds of people have been killed, wounded and displaced as a result of rocket and missile strikes, as well as artillery shelling, from Pakistani territory into border towns of Kunar over the past one year.

Janan Musazai said army commanders from the two countries would meet in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, to sort out the issue. However, he gave no specific date for the meeting.

He quoted President Hamid Karzai as saying that problems occasionally erupted in areas along the border, known as Durand Line. But attacks from the neighbouring country were in no way acceptable to Afghanistan, he hastened to add.

Earlier in the month, Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Lodin communicated Afghanistan’s concerns over the incursions to Pakistan Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq. The National Security Council also took up the issue at its last week’s meeting, chaired by Karzai.

“Peoples of the two countries should make sincere efforts to forge mutual cooperation,” the Taliban statement aid, chiding bids to fuel tension and hatred between the neighbours. It asked if it would put up with attacks on the rights of its people and remain tight-lipped.

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