KABUL, July 11: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday supported Pakistan for attacking Taliban-style militants dug in at a mosque and urged his neighbour to crack down on all radical religious groups there.

“We fully support the government and the nation of Pakistan for the campaign that is going on against terrorism,” Karzai told a news conference.

“(But) our expectation is that this campaign becomes more real and ... this campaign also covers those individuals who come from Pakistan and kill Afghanistan's sons,” he said at his heavily fortified palace in the Afghan capital.

Karzai said such steps by Pakistan would strengthen and consolidate the ties between the two nations and would put an end to misunderstandings between them.

The clerics who led the militants at the Lal Masjid mosque sought to impose strict Islamic laws in the capital and incited followers, mostly drawn from the restive North West Frontier Province, to run a vigilante anti-vice campaign.

Most of the hundreds of people, including women, who barricaded themselves in the mosque were supporters of Islamic radicalism similar to that of the Afghan Taliban government that was overthrown by US-led forces in 2001.

Calling militant attacks “cowardly work,” Karzai deplored a suicide bombing that killed 12 schoolchildren and said militants were running from battle by donning women's clothing.

Karzai said the “bravery” of militant fighters was killing “innocent people and children.”

“Whenever there is pressure on them they escape under a woman's burqa,” said Karzai.

He did not explain that comment, but could have been referring to past reports of Taliban militants in Afghanistan wearing burqa to flee detection. Recently, Abdul Aziz, the leader of Lal Masjid in Pakistan, was captured last week trying to slip out dressed in a burqa and high heels.

Karzai called reporters to the presidential palace to condemn Tuesday's suicide bombing in Uruzgan province that killed at least 17 people, including 12 shoolchildren. The attack in a crowded market wounded more than 30 people, including eight Dutch soldiers whom the attacker apparently had targeted.

“I pray to God that Afghanistan is soon freed from all this suffering,” Karzai said, noting that mass battles between Western militaries and Taliban militants were down this year but that suicide and roadside bombings were up.—Agencies