KABUL, Sept 6: The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Wednesday they had to ‘kill the mistrust’ between them to better fight the Taliban and other militants who operate across their common border.
President Gen Pervez Musharraf met his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai shortly after arriving on a two-day trip that comes amid calls for Islamabad to do more against Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters based in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Gen Musharraf said mutual trust was essential if the deadly insurgency in Afghanistan was to be quelled.
“The only course left is to have trust — kill mistrust, don’t blame each other.”
“If we don’t trust each other, there is no moving forward,” said President Musharraf. “If we carry on the course of accusations and counteraccusations, we will never achieve peace and we will never be brothers.”
Gen Musharraf assured his Afghan hosts that Pakistan was “fighting terrorism in all its forms (and) whatever we are not achieving is not through intention.”
He also gave reassurances that a ‘peace deal’ reached by the Pakistani government on Tuesday with militants in North Waziristan along the Afghan border was intended to curb militant activity.
There should be no “no Taliban activity on our side of the border or across the border in Afghanistan,” President Musharraf told reporters after talks Mr Karzai.
“The best way to fight this common enemy is to join hands, trust each other and form a common strategy,” he said.
The opium trade was also discussed by Mr Karzai and Gen Musharraf.
Earlier, talking to journalists at Chaklala airbase, the president said his visit to Afghanistan was aimed at consolidating the bonds of friendship and he looked forward to improved and much stronger ties between the two countries.
The president said that as Afghanistan is a landlocked country Pakistan would be critical for a trade corridor to that country. He stressed that for the mutual benefit, trade and commerce would have to be promoted and augmented.
He said whatever success or failure one country had directly affected not only each other but also the region, including the Central Asian Republics.
The president underscored the need for the two countries to have the best of political, diplomatic and economic relations and also total understanding of the ongoing counter-terrorism operations.—Agencies
