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President Pervez Musharraf has assured NATO's commander in Afghanistan that his country fully backs the fight against the Taliban, amid claims the alliance wants more action from Islamabad.
British General David Richards, who commands 31,000 international troops from 37 countries in insurgency-hit Afghanistan, met Musharraf for an hour of talks on security and cooperation, officials here said Tuesday.
Musharraf told Richards that Pakistan was cooperating with Afghanistan in the “fight against terrorism and extremism,” besides hosting over 2.5 million Afghan refugees, a Pakistan military statement said.
Musharraf also defended a controversial peace deal signed with tribal elders and insurgents in the restive tribal area of North Waziristan, saying it “was aimed at checking the activities of terrorists and militant Taliban.”
The statement said that Richards had praised Pakistan's efforts and the “excellent cooperation being extended in the fight against terrorism.”
It quoted Richards as saying that “ISAF fully appreciates that a vast majority of problems of Afghanistan are emanating from within the country having deep roots due to the fact that the country had remained highly unstable for over two decades.”
ISAF, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, assumed command of foreign troops in Afghanistan last Thursday, taking charge of the east of the country from the US-led coalition that toppled the Taliban five years ago.
NATO did not make any immediate comment following Richards' meeting with Musharraf at Army House, the Pakistani leader's official residence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which adjoins the capital.
Richards earlier denied a report in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that he would confront Musharraf with evidence of the alleged support of Pakistan's intelligence agencies for the Islamist Taliban.
“That is not the reason for one moment that I came here,” Richards told Pakistan's GEO television in an interview recorded before the meeting.
“I come here to further develop our relationship with the Pakistan army.”
The general praised Pakistan's actions but added that, like the rest of the world, it could still work harder.
“I don't know of many countries that could possibly be doing more. Could it do more still? Yes, we all want to do more because we still have a problem,” he said.
He also defended the North Waziristan deal, which drew criticism from Islamabad's allies in the US-declared “war on terror”.
“I think played rightly, with luck and good judgement I believe is there, this could set an example how we should deal with these problems,” Richards told GEO.
NATO had signed a deal of its own with tribal elders in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, he said.
Musharraf has had a long-running spat with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai but the two had a joint meeting with US President George W. Bush last month which briefly cleared the air.
Militants are widely believed to move freely across the porous and rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Pakistan says the 80,000 troops it has along the frontier prevent any major incursions.
NATO has assumed command of foreign forces from the US-led coalition that toppled the Taliban regime five years ago.
The Taliban insurgency has worsened dramatically in the past year, with insurgents killing scores of foreign and Afghan troops in mass attacks and also intensifying a vicious campaign of suicide and roadside bombings.
