March 14, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 24, 1428

LONDON, March 13: The visiting chief security officer of Helmund province, General Nabi Jan, squarely blamed the large-scale terrorism in his province on what he termed cross-border infiltration from Pakistan.

Talking to Dawn in an interview here on Monday, Brigadier-General Jan said illiteracy and unemployment had made his province attractive for the terrorists.

He alleged that Abdullah Mashud had come all the way from North Waziristan to Helmund to force the Council of Elders of Musa Kila to withdraw from the agreement of peace it had signed with the commander of British troops.

General Jan, who is virtually the police chief of his province, said Mehsud had also tried to disrupt and destroy some infrastructure uplift projects.

He appeared to seriously doubt Pakistan’s claim that it had established about 1,000 posts on the border to check cross-border infiltration, but refused to divulge the number of posts on the Afghan side or how far the Afghan and foreign troops were from the Durand Line terming the information as a defence secret.

He did not agree with the suggestion that instead of destroying the poppy crop, which has made Helmund the source of over 90 per cent of global supplies of drugs, it should be bought and turned into opiates for medicinal use and said the Afghan government was determined to eradicate the menace by destroying the crops.

Asked why even after five years, the security apparatus in Afghanistan has not been able to disarm the population and defang the warlords, he said arms were in abundance in Afghanistan because of the 30-year-long armed conflict it had suffered, “and supplies are also coming from other sources”.

He refused to name the source saying: “you know and I know from where these arms are coming.”

Earlier, speaking to a group of media persons at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he said those who were trying to harm Afghanistan would not escape the wrath of God. “They will reap as they sow,” he said.

He said there were a number of areas in Pakistan, including those which according to him were not under the control of Pakistan government, where he thought Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders had set up operational headquarters.

Asked what was the situation on Afghanistan’s border with Iran, he quicly replied: “Abdullah Mashud did not come from Iran.”