Pak FM in Kabul for talks on volatile border, trade
AFP, Kabul
Kabul is expected to confront Pakistan's visiting foreign minister Thursday over a series of bloody attacks it blames on Taliban insurgents hiding out in Pakistan's western tribal lands. The two-day visit by Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who flew into the Afghan capital just after 11:00 am (0630 GMT), comes after one of the deadliest weeks to blight war-ravaged Afghanistan since the radical Taliban militia were driven from power 20 months ago. Factional fighting and intensified attacks against aid workers, soldiers and officials have claimed about 100 lives and led to a suspension of crucial relief operations in some areas of the country. Kasuri headed straight from Kabul airport to talks with his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah. He is also due to meet President Hamid Karzai, Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, and former king Mohammed Zahir Shah later Thursday, a Pakistani official said. "He will reiterate Pakistan's desire that there will be more concerted efforts to curb the terrorism in the two countries," the official told AFP in Islamabad, adding that trade and economic cooperation were also on the agenda. Alleged cross-border attacks by suspected Taliban guerrillas "will certainly be discussed with (Kasuri)," Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin said Monday. "Cross-border activities are one of the very common trends we see in some of the terrorist activities that happen in Afghanistan these days." Ludin was speaking a day after hundreds of militants on trucks stormed the Afghan border town of Barmal. At least 22 people were killed when they attacked the local government office. Ludin, echoing countless Afghan officials, said the assailants came from Pakistan, just 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, which once nurtured and supported the Taliban.
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