Karzai tries to allay Islamabad's fears

ISLAMABAD Afghan President Hamid Karzai has categorically assured Pakistan that Afghan government would not allow India or its operatives to destabilise Pakistan through engineered terror actions. Well-placed sources informed TheNation on Monday that Afghan President during his recent visit to Pakistan assured the Pakistani leadership that Baloch fugitive Bramdagh Bugti would also be not allowed to use Afghan soil against Pakistan. Sources said that these assurances came from the Afghan President after Pakistani authorities forcefully took up the issue with him that Afghan soil was being used to destabilise Pakistan. Pakistani authorities had protested with the Afghan President that Pakistan could no more tolerate that its inimical forces used his country through their continued destabilising efforts. Sources said that Karzai was here to ramp up support ahead of parliamentary elections in his own country and he sought Pakistans good offices to muster support of those Afghan nationals who remained opposed to his government. Sources further said that Karzai visited Pakistan this time with the realisation that it was only Pakistan that could ensure his political strength in his own country. However, sources were of the view that Pakistani authorities were not much upbeat over these assurances as these were just reiteration. This was not the first time that such assurances were given to Pakistan. We want practical steps by the Afghan government in dismantling anti-Pakistan terror networks which are using Afghan soil against Pakistan, sources said. They said Pakistan would wait and watch as to how Afghan President and his government fulfil their promises to check anti-Pakistani operatives from using the Afghan soil. It would be premature to draw any conclusion until and unless there are substantive evidence to believe that Afghan government has launched sincere efforts to take on anti-Pakistan elements using Afghan soil against Pakistan, sources added.

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