Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: October 7, 2011
URL: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/taliban-cant-move-a-finger-without-pak-karzai/190952-2.html
Launching another broadside against Pakistan,
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said the Taliban, that has launched
some audacious attacks in his country will not be able to "move a finger
without Pakistani support."
As Afghanistan marked 10 years of the overthrow
of the Taliban government on Friday, Karzai said his government and US-led
NATO have failed to provide Afghans with security.
Karzai said that it was a "serious shortcoming"
that the Taliban were able to launch such spectacular attacks but also added
that "these problems come from abroad" and pointed the finger at
Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency.
"On the overall policy of Pakistan toward
Afghanistan and towards Taliban, definitely, the Taliban will not be able
to move a finger without Pakistani support," Karzai said.
In recent months Afghanistan has seen a string
of brazen assaults on major cities and military targets as well high profile
assassinations, such as the killing last month of Afghan peace envoy and former
president Burhanuddin Rabbani, allegedly by Taliban-linked Haqqani network,
which is based in Pakistan.
Karzai also traced some of Afghanistan's current
insecurity to military strategy in the early years of the war and the failure
to tackle the Taliban sheltering in Pakistan's volatile tribal areas.
"NATO and the US and our neighbours in
Pakistan should have concentrated a long time back, in the beginning of 2002-03,
on the (Taliban) sanctuaries," he said.
In an outburst following the killing of Rabbani,
Karzai had accused Pakistan of refusing to support investigation and playing
a "double game" on terrorism.
Karzai added that the president and prime
minister of Pakistan were eager for good relations with Afghanistan but re-emphasised
that Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan will not go away unless the government
there co-operates with the Afghan administration.
Karzai, who has just returned from New Delhi
after signing a historic strategic partnership agreement with India, also
accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgency, saying sanctuaries there still
needed to be tackled.
Pakistani authorities deny any support for
the insurgents fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Although he was eager to emphasise achievements
in education and health, Karzai admitted that security was his greatest failing.
"We've done terribly badly in providing
security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our
government and of our international partners," he said.
Karzai also admitted that the policy of talking
to the Taliban had received a serious blow with the assassination of ex-president
Rabbani but still added: "Find an address, find a location, and we will
talk to you."
He also vowed to step down in 2014 and said
he was working on the succession.
"I feel it is my responsibility to be
working on a next president that the Afghans can trust and that they can have
faith in, and that he as the president can serve this nation," he said.
