Pak, UK pledge to win anti-terror battle

Lahore, Nov 19: Pakistan and Britain today pledged to employ a multi-pronged strategy to address the root causes of terrorism and win the ongoing battle against obscurantist forces.

''Progress in West Asia peace process will lead to addressing the problems of terrorism and extremism and defeating obscurantist forces, which are trying to Talibanise our societies and prevent people from making progress,'' visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf told a joint press conference here after their talks.

Prime Minister Blair arrived in Islamabad late yesterday for the third round of bilateral summit consultations as part of an understanding reached between the nations during President Musharraf's visit to London in December 2004.

He arrived here this morning on a brief visit for the talks, which focussed on important bilateral, regional and global issues including Afghanistan situation, stability along Pak-Afghan border and closer cooperation to deal with the challenges such as renewed insurgency of Taliban.

Seen in the backdrop of Mr Blair's latest reflection on Iraq and the West Asia policy, discussions also involved in addition to the usual topics, new ideas injected by him on the Palestinian issue.

''We should try to make progress in resolving the West Asia problem,'' Blair said adding that it would also help defeat terrorism and extremism.

He supported President Musharraf's concept of enlightened moderation for dealing with the problems and said, ''we are empowering moderates in the ongoing battle against terrorists to ensure that we are not defeated.'' General Musharraf also endorsed Mr Blair, saying that the issue of terrorism basically stems from unresolved issues such as Palestinian problem. ''We will first have to resolve this long standing dispute as part of our efforts to address the root causes of terrorism,'' General Musharraf said.

The British Prime Minister, however, stressed that the problem of terrorism being presently faced by the world had been growing for a long time adding that it will, therefore, take a long time to be defeated.

Expressing concern over the renewed Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Mr Blair urged the international community to support the Afghan government in its fight against what he called extremist forces. ''Pakistan also has a strategic interest in Afghanistan,'' he said adding that Islamabad would certainly like to see a stable neighbour in the west instead of the one, which once again fell a prey to the Al-Qaeda.

Asked if NATO had enough forces to defeat Taliban insurgency and how could Pakistan do more in the ongoing fight against terrorism, as being repeatedly asked by Afghanistan, Mr Blair said ''we all have to work together to defeat extremist and militant forces including Taliban.'' As for NATO's operational requirements in Afghanistan, he said a summit meeting of the organisation in the near future would analyse the situation.

However, President Musharraf challenged statements by Afghan officials that Pakistan should do more in the ongoing war against terrorism, saying Taliban is a problem of Afghanistan and its solution also lies there and not in Pakistan.

Pakistan was doing much more than its capacity and taking action against the elements, supporting the insurgency from its soil, he added.

''We are doing all that we can because we are against terrorism and Talibanisation,'' Musharraf said, adding that ''our strategy is very clear we have to fight Taliban and defeat them''.

Stating that he would not allow obscurantist culture to be imposed on his people, he said, ''I am sure even Afghans would not like this culture.'' He stressed that problem in Afghanistan could not be resolved only through military means, adding that there has to be a multi-dimensional approach envisaging reconstruction and reconciliation to improve the situation in the war torn country.

The President also rejected statement of the US Central Command Chief John Abizaid that the world would face the third world war if it failed to find a way to stem the rise of Islamic militancy.

''I do not think this will lead to the third world war,'' said the President while underlining the need to promote the inter-faith harmony.

UNI