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News Analysis: Message conveyed by Pakistani army chief vital for confidence building: Afghan observers

Xinhua, February 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, accompanied by General Rezwan Akhtar, chief of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), visited Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday and held meeting with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on various issues including the war on terror and extremism threatening the two countries.

Looking to the visit and the message conveyed by him to Kabul with optimism, Afghan political observers believe that the visit by Sharif could have positive impact on bridging gap and building confidence between the two neighboring states.

Distrust has marred Kabul-Islamabad relations over the past decades. The post-Taliban Afghan administration has accused Pakistani government of supporting Taliban militants to fight in Afghanistan, a claim spurned by Islamabad as baseless.

However, in the tit-for-tat accusation, Pakistan alleges that Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of Pakistani Taliban Movement has been hidden in Afghanistan, conducting terrorist activities in Pakistani soil.

General Raheel Sharif, during his meeting with Afghan President Ghani and Chief Executive of Afghan government Abdullah Abdullah said, "Afghanistan's enemy is also Pakistan's enemy," according to media reports.

The Pakistani army chief also pointed out that Islamabad would support Afghan peace process and in this regard would use all resources.

To build confidence, General Sharif has visited Kabul four times and exchanged views with Afghan leaders and offered to train Afghan army personnel.

Afghan President Ghani has sent six army cadets to Pakistan for training to get the two countries closer.

A statement of Afghan government released here on Tuesday stated that General Sharif's message in talks with President Ghani was positive and reflected Islamabad's resolve to cooperate with Kabul in the war on terror.

Citing foreign media, local media reported Thursday that talks between United States and Taliban for Afghan peace would be held in Qatar on Thursday.

"We evaluate that such visits have positive impact on confidence building, but could not believe unless practical steps are taken," a political analyst Kamal Sadat told local media on Thursday.

In this regard, the analyst added that the Taliban outfit and Haqqani network leaders are in Pakistan, saying Pakistan has reportedly set free 33 Taliban leaders including second-in- commander Mullah Brather from prisons but none of them have been handed over to Afghanistan.

Pakistan has also suffered from Taliban and terrorists, the political watcher said, adding that the terrorists had committed massacre in a school in Peshawar and targeted mosques in Hayatabad and Rawalpindi, killing scores of innocent civilians.

"Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have been suffering at the hands of terrorists and extremists. We have big problems and the key to the solution is at the hand of General Raheel Sharif, if he wants, he can solve," another analyst Haroon Mir said in talks with local media. Endi