Karzai visits Islamabad to bolster collaboration against terrorism
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai dashed to Islamabad Wednesday, which was widely seen as a positive response to their enhanced cooperation in war against terrorism and insurgency.
In view of the recent positive interactions, particularly from the Pakistani side, the visit carries much more significance and is liable to pay dividends to both the South Asian neighbors, which have had a rollercoaster history of mutual relationship.
Pakistan extended unprecedented support when President Karzai, in the wake of the London Conference held in January and under the new U.S. strategy against terrorism, announced a plan of reconciliation and reintegration of Taliban insurgents into the social mainstream.
Pakistan's Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who met NATO commanders in Brussels prior to the London Conference, announced, on his return to Islamabad, that his country was ready to negotiate talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
He went a step further by offering that Pakistan can play also its role in training the Afghanistan's security forces.
Regional observers attached great significance to this gesture of Pakistan as its armed forces have already shown their metal in fight against local Taliban in Swat, Bajaur, South Waziristan, and other southwestern parts of the country and Afghanistan could rightly cash in on their expertise.
However, for their own reasons neither the Afghan government nor its Western allies gave a positive response to the offer. Gen. Kayani is stated to have repeated his offer even during his last week visit to Kabul in which he called on President Karzai and met other senior Afghan officials.
Later, Islamabad took another important step by arresting several top Afghan Taliban leaders, including their No. 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Mullah Kabir, and Muttasim Agha Jan, a senior leader in the erstwhile Taliban regime and son-in-law of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Border control will also top the agenda of the incoming meeting between Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Pakistan has long been complaining insurgents allegedly secure arms and financial support from across the Afghan border.
Yet another issue on the slate of Karzai's talks will be the return of the 1.7 million Afghan refugees, which Pakistan is demanding be shifted to camps inside Afghanistan.
Seen in the background of these hick-ups in bilateral relations and in the face of recent positive interactions from the two sides, Karzai's visit has all probabilities to set a new course of mutual cooperation and collaboration.
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