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Pakistan, Afghanistan promise joint effort against terrorism

Other News Materials 9 September 2008 17:09 (UTC +04:00)

Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai vowed to pursue united efforts against the menace of terrorism, reported dpa.

"Pakistan and Afghanistan are like twins, joined. They are inseparable and that is why both are suffering of the same problems, by the same evils," Karzai said at a joint press conference with Zardari, hours after the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the new head of state.

"I find in President Zardari a good will and vision not only for relations between the two countries but for the region, that I have seen for the first time in the leadership of this region," he said.

Relations between the two counties were strained as the Karzai government accused Pakistan of not doing enough to control Taliban militants in its tribal regions, from where they launch cross-border attacks on international and Afghan forces.

But Zardari, who invited Karzai to his oath-taking ceremony to begin mending diplomatic ties, said he was more committed to fight terrorism than his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, a long-time US ally.

"Yesterday's war may not have the people behind it but today's war does have (support of) the people of Pakistan - in fact the president of Pakistan, who himself is a victim of terrorism," Zardari said.

Former prime minister Bhutto was assassinated during an election rally in a suicide gun-and-bomb attack late last year, apparently on the orders of Taliban leadership in Pakistan's tribal belt.

Many analysts believe the problem of rising Islamic militancy, which is spreading from the tribal region to the settled areas of the neighbouring North-West Frontier Province and the rest of the country, will be a major challenge for Zardari.

"Not an inch will be lost to the miscreants or otherwise," Zardari said. "Yes there is a problem but I assure the nation - you and I - we are both larger than the problem. We can both together look the problem in the eye and we can solve it."

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