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Ghani, Modi Slam Pakistan on Terrorism
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized Pakistan on terrorism at the inauguration of the sixth Heart of Asia ministerial conference on Sunday in Amritsar, a city in Punjab state of India.
The theme of the conference is ‘enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region’.
President Ghani delivered his speech at the opening of the conference, praised India for its ‘no strings attached’ help and attacked Pakistan for providing sanctuary to terrorists.
He stressed on the importance of the India-Iran Chahbahar port development project for Kabul’s regional connectivity plans.
At the same time, he said that Pakistan’s proposed $500 million in funds for reconstruction of Afghanistan was better served fighting terrorism.
“There is need for a fund to combat extremism. Pakistan has generously pledged 500 million dollars for reconstruction of Afghanistan. This fund, Mr. Aziz, could very well be used for containing extremism because without peace any amount of assistance will not meet the needs of our people,” Ghani said, directly addressing Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz who was in the conference.
He added, “Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties last year. This is unacceptable … Some still provide sanctuary and support or tolerate these [terrorist] networks. As Mr. Kakazada, one of the key figures in the Taliban movement recently said, if they did not have sanctuary in Pakistan, they would not last a month”.
“I don’t want a blame game, I want clarifications on what is being done to prevent the export of terror,” Ghani continued.
He emphasized the need to confront terrorism and called on Pakistan to “verify cross-frontier activities”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described terrorism “the biggest threat to Afghanistan’s peace and the region”, adding we must counter it.
“We must counter terrorists and their masters. We must demonstrate strong collective will to defeat terror network that cause bloodshed and spread fear,” PM Modi emphasized.
“Silence and inaction on terror in Afghanistan and the region will only embolden terrorists and masters and those fund them,” Indian PM added.
Modi said India is committed to ‘durable peace’ in Afghanistan, and announced plans to connect India and Afghanistan via an air transport corridor, as well as discussed the possibility of trilateral cooperation over Iran’s Chahbahar port.
“India-Afghanistan-Iran cooperation on the Chahbahar port will help Afghanistan to connect its economy to the rest of the world,” Modi said.
The ‘Heart of Asia’ initiative was launched in 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey for encouraging economic and security cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours for dealing with the common problems of terrorism, extremism and poverty
Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates are part of the Heart of Asia initiative.
Six key areas in which the 14 countries have been pursuing confidence-building measures since the 2013 Almaty meeting are disaster management, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, trade and investment, regional infrastructure, and education.
The process is supported by 17 other, predominantly Western, countries, and 12 international organisations which are also sending senior representatives.
By: Hesamuddin Hesam
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Iran, Pakistan leaders raise concerns over ‘terrorist groups’ in Afghanistan
Following a two-day official visit to Pakistan, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a joint statement emphasizing the need to further expand commercial and economic cooperation and transform the common border of the two countries from a “border of peace” to “border of prosperity”.
The two leaders also strongly condemned aggressions and crimes of Israel in Gaza, and demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as unimpeded humanitarian access to the besieged people of Gaza.
Numerous other issues were also discussed but on the topic of Afghanistan, they jointly declared their commitment to the development of Afghanistan as a peaceful, united, independent country free from the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking.
According to the statement the two countries pointed out that the existence of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan is a serious threat to the security of the region and the world.
The two sides stressed their desire to strengthen cooperation in the field of fighting terrorism and ensuring security and creating a united front against terrorism.
They also discussed the importance of coordinating regional and international efforts to ensure security and stability in the region.
“While respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, the two sides recognized that increasing participation of all strata of Afghans in basic decision-making will lead to the strengthening of peace and stability in this country,” the statement read.
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Over 1,000 Afghan refugees forced out of Pakistan in one day
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) says over 1,000 Afghan migrants were forcibly returned from Pakistan on Tuesday through Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar province, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that based on information provided by the Spin Boldak Kandahar border command, these returnees comprised 191 families, totalling 998 people.
In addition, three migrants released from Pakistani prisons were also returned, according to the statement.
The statement added that after registering the returnees, the refugees were referred to the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Each family received 10,000 afghanis – paid to them by the Islamic Emirate.
In another statement, the ministry said that 2,783 migrants living in Iran voluntarily and forcibly returned to the country during this week.
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Afghanistan’s minister of transport and aviation attends regional meeting in Uzbekistan
Hamidullah Akhundzadeh, acting Minister of Transport and Aviation, headed a delegation to Uzbekistan for a ‘Six-Party Corridor’ meeting that included representatives from Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
On the sidelines of this meeting the Afghanistan delegation discussed trade through the corridor with the other five relevant countries.
According to the ministry of transport and aviation, Akhundzadeh met with the deputy ministers of transport of Russia and Belarus.
He also discussed ways to expand transit between Afghanistan and Russia; and Afghanistan and Belarus, and provide the necessary facilities to achieve this.
The ministry added that the acting minister had a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Transport and the Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan on Afghanistan and discussed the expansion of road transport between the two countries.
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