CHAMAN, May 24: The governor of Kandahar has claimed that a number of Baloch nationalists have taken refuge in his province and offered to mediate between the `government of Pakistan and the Baloch people’.

“Baloch nationalists have migrated to Kandahar from Balochistan to escape excesses by the Pakistan government,” Mr Asadullah Khalid said in an exclusive interview with the Geo TV network at his office in Kandahar city.

The governor said the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was `insignificant’ as a single ethnic stock straddled it. “If Europe can get united, why not these two countries.”

The governor said Afghanistan had been a `victim of terrorism’ for the last 30 years and Pakistan had not been immune to the fallout. “Afghanistan doesn’t want lawlessness in Pakistan.”

In reply to a question about Islamabad’s concerns over Kabul’s relations with New Delhi, Mr Khalid said Afghanistan `is a sovereign state having the right to forge ties with any country’.

However, the governor said ties with India would have no bearing on Pakistan as `we won’t allow India or any country, for that matter, to use Afghan territory against Pakistan’.

— Agencies