December 1, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1424

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WASHINGTON, Nov 30: The Afghan government has said it would continue to draw Islamabad’s attention to the problems posed by the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists operating from Pakistan as long as such activities continued.

In a statement distributed by the Afghan Embassy in Washington over the weekend, the Afghan government said in the past it had commended Pakistan’s actions “when warranted by its deeds.”

“But as along as Afghanistan’s security is endangered by cross-border terrorism, we will keep reminding authorities in Pakistan, as friends who share security-related matters, of our shared responsibilities and the most appropriate course of action,” it added.

Afghanistan, the statement said, would keep reminding Pakistan of its responsibilities as long as the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists “continue to issue statements of hate and incite newly recruited militants to violence from Pakistani cities.”

Afghanistan’s criticism of Pakistan’s reluctance to deal with this problem will not stop, as long as “foreign aid workers and Afghan and foreign nationals are falling victim to terrorist acts,” the Afghan government said.

The Afghan government also urged Pakistan to refrain from criticizing Kabul and instead focus on the fight against terrorism and extremism that are threatening peace and stability in South Asia.

The Afghan Embassy pointed out that some Pakistani officials had recently issued “irresponsible remarks” about Afghanistan and said that such an attitude “cannot help us in dealing with the real problems that feed terrorism and violent extremism in our region.”

Such remarks, the statement said, “do not correspond with Pakistan’s publicly stated policy in regards to Afghanistan, and have little relevance to recent statements made by Afghan leaders or to Afghanistan’s national security concerns.”