ISLAMABAD: Kabul and Islamabad traded insults over the war with the Taliban yesterday, plunging their frosty relations to a new low at a key juncture in efforts to search for peace before Nato withdraws.
It was the most explosive in a series of rows that have marred Western efforts to build trust between both governments, considered integral to forging any lasting peace with the Taliban.
It came as a US drone strike targeting the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, blamed by Washington for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, killed 18 militants in Pakistan, officials said.
Afghan army chief of staff General Sher Mohammad Karimi told the BBC in an interview that Pakistan could end the Afghan war “in weeks” if it were serious about peace and is complicit in drone strikes despite its denunciations of the anti-militant campaign.
Madrassas have been closed and all the Taliban unleashed to Afghanistan, he said, adding that the Taliban are under their control and Pakistan could do far more to promote a nascent peace process, he said.
“Now Pakistan is suffering internally from terrorists as much as I do. We can both do together to fight this menace provided that (everyone is) sincere in what they’re doing,” Karimi said in the interview recorded in Kabul on Saturday.
The search for peace in Afghanistan is an urgent priority as 100,000 US-led Nato troops withdraw next year and Afghan forces take on the fight against insurgents.
Pakistan was a key backer of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Kabul and is believed to shelter some of top rebels.
The West believes Pakistani support is vital to securing any workable peace deal in Afghanistan and officials have praised Islamabad for helping to support peace efforts.
After talks with Britain’s leader David Cameron on Sunday, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke of his government’s “firm resolve to promote the shared objective of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan”.
But Afghan President Hamid Karzai has decried what he sees as Pakistani double-dealing to bring about a friendly regime in Kabul, and Karimi said this bad faith extended to Sharif’s objections to drone strikes in Pakistan’s northwest. He argued that the US had not started attacks on its own and that Islamabad had “given the lists” of militants it wants taken out. “The drones are used against those Taliban who are Pakistani Taliban. The drones are never used against Haqqani or Afghan Taliban,” he said, in reference to one of the most feared Afghan insurgent groups.
“That’s why that’s one of the issues when I’m saying that the peace to Afghanistan can come if us and Pakistan both will desire to have peace. Peace is in the hands of the US and Pakistan. And Afghanistan.”
Karimi’s remarks, which laid bare the mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad despite a February summit hosted by Britain to ignite peace efforts.
But Pakistani officials said that Afghan and Pakistani militants were among the dead when the drone strike targeted the compound early yesterday.
Pakistan condemned the strike as a violation of its sovereignty. Islamabad said it would not be deterred in its efforts to support international efforts to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and accused elements in the Afghan government of insincerity.
“The allegations that Pakistan ‘controls’ the Taliban and has ‘unleashed’ them on Afghanistan have no basis. We reject them categorically,” the foreign ministry said.
“Pakistan has exercised extreme restraint in the face of highly provocative language used by the Afghan civil and military officials over the last few months, not to mention some totally fabricated accusations,” Islamabad said. “We would, however, hope that the Afghan officials would refrain from levelling baseless allegations and work towards creating a conducive environment that helps advance the shared objectives of peace, stability and prosperity,” it said.
Agencies
