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More troops for war on terror: Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

This disproves Kabul's charge of Islamabad helping militants in Afghanistan, says Kasuri

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will deploy 10,000 more troops on its border with Afghanistan as part of the United States-led "war on terror." President Pervez Musharraf conveyed this to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visited Pakistan on Tuesday.

"We had 80,000. We've decided to increase that by another 10,000 troops and Secretary Rice was given some indication of that by the President of how that will happen, how more troops are going to be there. But we've already done that in anticipation," said Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri at a joint press briefing with Ms. Rice immediately after the meeting.

Mr. Kasuri said this showed Pakistan was not helping militants in Afghanistan as alleged by Kabul. He said their Government, which wanted to build energy pipelines and trade corridors through Afghanistan, did not have any motive to keep the conflict going in its western neighbour.

In "extensive" talks [not "inconclusive" as reported on Tuesday], the two sides discussed "our bilateral cooperation, our joint fight against terrorism and extremism, and the situation along Pakistan-Afghanistan border," Mr. Kasuri said.

Acknowledging this "is a very difficult time for both Afghanistan and Pakistan" which faced attacks by the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Ms. Rice expressed confidence that the two countries were united in wanting to beat them.

"The role of the United States in all of this is to keep pressing everyone ahead to deal with the threat," she said, adding that she will.

Ms. Rice, who flew to Kabul on Wednesday morning, also spoke in detail about the expectations of the Bush Administration and the world that Gen. Muhsarraf would hold free and fair elections in 2007, and said the U.S. would support democratisation in Pakistan.

She praised Gen. Musharraf's concept of "enlightened moderation" was "a good start" because "one thing is very certain: an extreme Pakistan is not likely to support democratic processes. So let's be very clear about that."

Move opposed

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six Islamic political parties, on Wednesday opposed Pakistan's decision to deploy 10,000 more troops in the country's tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the "war on terror".

"The Government should withdraw the decision to deploy more troops as it will affect the peace process in the tribal region," MMA secretary general Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman said . The MMA wants the 80,000 troops already deployed in the region withdrawn.

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