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ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: President Pervez Musharraf and US Secretary of State Colin agreed that the last week’s clash between their forces on the Pakistan-Afghan border might have been due to a “misunderstanding”, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said on Saturday.
Kasuri said that Colin Powell telephoned President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday last and “both agreed that the incident of Dec 29 may have occurred due to some misunderstanding at the operational level on the ground”.
“They reiterated the need to further strengthen co-ordination to ensure that such incidents do not happen in future,” Kasuri said in a statement, adding that the Pakistani and US authorities were in close contact in this regard.
Pakistan, he said, would coordinate closely with the United States in future military operations around Afghan border.
However, the foreign minister rejected a statement by a US military spokeswomen in Afghanistan who said Pakistan had agreed that US forces could pursue Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects who fled over the border to Pakistan.
“Operations within Pakistani territory would be conducted solely and exclusively by our own forces and in response to decisions taken by Pakistan,” Kasuri said.
Kasuri said Pakistani troops were “highly disciplined, organized and efficient ... and are fully capable of securing and protecting Pakistan’s borders.”
Regarding the Dec 29 incident, the minister said he took up the matter with the US ambassador on Dec 31.
Kasuri said Pakistan was a key member of the global coalition against terrorism and it had joined the coalition in the country’s supreme national interests.
He said Pakistan’s role and contribution in the fight against terrorism were significant and highly appreciated.
“You have heard this from the top leadership of the US, including from President Bush in his last State-of-the-Union address to the congress,” the minister added.
ISPR: Director-General ISPR, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi said on Saturday that there was no ambiguity in the understanding between coalition forces operating in Afghanistan and the Pakistan government.
In a statement, he said all operations that take place on Pakistani territory would only be conducted by Pakistani forces.
Commenting on news reports appearing in the media about implied use of ‘hot pursuit’ by coalition forces along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the DG ISPR stated that if the coalition forces observed anything unusual along the border, they provided information to Pakistani forces which conducted actions on Pakistani soil.
He said there was a regular sharing of intelligence and other information between both the forces.
Gen Qureshi also referred to the telephonic call the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, made to President Pervez Musharraf on Friday said they discussed prevailing geo-political situation in the region with particular reference to Afghanistan.
The US secretary thanked President Musharraf and Pakistan armed forces for the excellent cooperation being extended in the fight against international terrorism, he added. —Agencies
