Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Stop Exporting Terror, India And Afghanistan Tell Pakistan

Stop Exporting Terror, India & Afghanistan Tell Pakistan (NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI - January 13, 2009: India and Afghanistan on Friday jointly sent a tough message to Pakistan saying that no country should allow its territory to be used for terrorism. Pakistan remained at the centre of discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who was here on a `symbolic visit’ to show `solidarity’ with India on the Mumbai terror attacks. The joint statement released after bilateral talks clearly reflected concerns of both countries on the issue of terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil. Without once naming to Pakistan, the two leaders in a joint statement strongly reminded Islamabad about its bilateral, multilateral and international obligations to stop terrorism emanating from its soil and into Afghanistan and India. "The leaders called for the full compliance with bilateral, multilateral and international obligations of states to prevent terrorism in any manner originating from territories under their control since terrorism emanates from sanctuaries and training camps and sustenance and support received by terrorist groups," the joint statement said. The reference in the joint statement follows Pakistan’s refusal to hand over terrorists suspected to be behind the Mumbai attacks to India. As far as India is concerned, the reference is also to Pakistan’s international obligation to crackdown on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The statement termed the Mumbai attacks deplorable and stressed that Mr Karzai’s unscheduled visit was aimed at expressing "Afghanistan’s solidarity with India." The visit and joint statement is also aimed at putting diplomatic pressure on Pakistan from two countries that have been adversely affected from terror originating in Pakistan. Like India, Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of allowing terror strikes to be launched from Pakistani soil into Afghanistan. For Afghanistan, the key problem is of terror sanctuaries on the Pakistani border while India has asked Pakistan to end state support to terror elements and dismantle the Lashkar-e- Toiba training camps which have been churning out terrorists. Mr Karzai’s visit is likely to be closely watched by the Pakistani establishment, which has continued to be uneasy about India-Afghanistan bilateral ties. Mr Karzai’s visit comes a week after Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to Kabul. Kabul, which has close ties with New Delhi, shares an uneasy relationship with Islamabad.

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