India-Afghanistan to combat terrorism unitedly

Accepting terrorism spreading its tentacles and expressing their firm commitment to trample its terror, the Prime Minister of India and the President of Afghanistan issued separate statements after detailed discussion here on Monday, where they pledged together not to allow terrorism to obstruct friendship and continue the developmental work on the part of India in Afghanistan.

Although the leaders of the two nations did not mention the name of Pakistan-the hand behind the terrorist attack on Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7 and all the terrorist activities in neighbouring areas, both Dr. Manmohan Singh and Hamid Karzai believe the attack was the handiwork of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The two leaders held discussions a day after they came from Sri Lanka participating in the 15th SAARC convention. Terrorism remained the hallmark of the convention. The eight-member countries of SAARC also committed to help each other in suppressing terrorism after hard discussion and finally agreed to extradite criminals and terrorists on each other’s demand. Afghanistan vehemently criticised Pakistan for sheltering terrorism and pointed finger for attacking Indian embassy in Kabul on July 4.

So, naturally all were expecting some harsh criticism from him, but he preferred not to be critical as pointing Islamabad directly could have an impact on the Indo-Pak peace process. "I call on all allies to recognise the seriousness of militant radicalism," said Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan.

Characterising the blast on Indian embassy in Kabul as “an attack on Indo-Afghan friendship,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the attack have shown that terrorisms has no barriers and is not bound by restraints.

“We have agreed that we will not allow terrorism to stand in our way. We will fight it unitedly and with full determination,” he said.

Similar commitment was also expressed by the President Karzai, who said: “Afghanistan will stand resolutely with India in fighting terrorism. Afghanistan stands resolutely with our allies in the conduct of war against terrorism.”

Dr. Singh said that we will fulfill our commitments to Afghanistan. He was vocal in saying that incidents of terrorism would not deter New Delhi from continuing its assistance to reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan. India has announced a fresh assistance worth USD450 million. This is over and above USD750 million that has already been committed by India to implement projects in various sectors including infrastructure development, education, healthcare and social development.

Dr. Singh also informed Mr. Karzai that the road from Zaranj to Delaram, a part of the infrastructure projects in Western Afghanistan is completed now and will be hand over to his government soon as a tribute to the precious Indian and Afghan lives that were lost in making this project a reality.

Emphasising the “regional peace and stability” as the grass root need of the society, Dr. Singh re-affirmed to Karzai India’s “abiding commitment” to Afghanistan’s effort to build a “democratic, pluralistic and stable polity.”