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It's an Afghan issue: Musharraf

Nirupama Subramanian

Concedes Taliban is getting help from border areas

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday made a passionate defence against accusations that Pakistan had a hand in the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and rejected sole responsibility for stopping it.

At a press conference Gen. Musharraf said he called to clear "misperceptions" about Pakistan's role in Afghanistan, he reiterated that the Taliban was an Afghan problem and needed an indigenous solution, but conceded the fighters were getting help and support from the border areas of Pakistan.

"Whatever is happening here, we understand, and I will never absolve ourselves that nothing is happening here. Some things are happening here and we have to take action and we are taking action, but if anyone blames only Pakistan and tries to make a scapegoat of Pakistan, we don't accept it anymore."

Gen. Musharraf admitted that certain incidents had come to light about border guards turning a "blind eye" to Taliban cross-border activities but justified these omissions as an instinct for self-preservation against a well-armed and well-motivated enemy.

But he rejected as "preposterous" suggestions that sections of the army or the ISI were abetting the Taliban.

Cross-border activity

The President said it was not just Pakistan's responsibility to stop cross-border activity. "It is the joint responsibility of Pakistan, Afghanistan, U.S. forces, NATO, ISAF and we refuse to take complete responsibility of stopping all activities across the border," he said.

For its part, Pakistan had decided to go ahead with fencing and mining selected areas of the border with Afghanistan despite international opposition to it. As long as no one came up with an alternative to this, no country had the right to criticise Pakistan for resorting to these measures, he said.

Pakistan would fence and mine 35.2 km of its 2,400 km border with Afghanistan in seven separate sections,.

Gen. Musharraf also described Afghan refugee camps in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, as a "safe haven" for the Taliban, and asked the international community to make arrangements to remove them.

He also said his Government knew Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban leader, had been in Pakistan three times, and had tracked him, but he had managed to evade arrest on each occasion.

As there was "total intelligence co-operation" between Pakistan and U.S intelligence agencies, he described the failure to arrest him as a "combined failure".

The President also defended the peace deals with tribals in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, and said though they were only a "partial success" had not ended Al-Qaeda and Taliban activity, Pakistan would not scrap the agreements because it was the only way forward.

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