World | Pakistan
Pakistan, Afghan tribal chiefs tackle mounting terrorism
Pakistani and Afghan tribal chiefs were seeking ways Tuesday to counter the violence dogging their countries, including offering talks to Taliban militants.
- Agencies
- Published: 11:39 October 28, 2008
Islamabad: Pakistani and Afghan tribal chiefs were seeking ways Tuesday to counter the violence dogging their countries, including offering talks to Taliban militants.
Tribal and political leaders were concluding a two-day jirga, or traditional council, set up to foster cooperation between the uneasy allies of the United States.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the council on Monday that talks should be open to "sons of the soil willing to forsake the path of violence."
The meeting of some 50 leaders in Islamabad, dubbed a mini-jirga, is a follow-up to a much larger "peace council" in Kabul last year which vowed to fight terrorism
together.
The pledges of cross-border cooperation made in 2007 have largely failed to materialize.
Karzai has accused Pakistan of secretly aiding the Taliban a charge Islamabad rejects as an attempt to mask failures of the government and international community in Afghanistan.
Still, Qureshi said Pakistan's return to full democratic rule had changed the equation in favor of cooperation against terrorism.
"A democratic polity draws its strength from the mandate of the people. It has a much greater chance of success than a dictatorship," he said.
Violence in both countries has risen steadily since US-led forces drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001. Many militants fled to Pakistan's border regions,
where they have established bases and struck back with increasing success.
The Afghan government is seeking talks with elements in the Taliban leadership in an effort at reconciliation and the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan said the two
sides recently had contacts in Saudi Arabia.
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