Afghan Prez Karzai calls for united fight on terror

New Delhi, Apr 3: Afghanistan, which became the eighth member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) today, called upon member countries to unitedly fight against terrorism and check all political and financial assistance to terrorists and extremists.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, in his maiden address at the 14th SAARC Summit here, said it was the common duty of all member countries to fight terrorism and stop its sources including financial and political support.

Highlighting the political turmoil that his country had undergone during the decades of civil war, Mr Karzai said a peaceful Afghanistan could prove a strong asset for regional development through infrastructure development.

Earlier, Mr Karzai, wearing his traditional green cape and a 'Karakul' (fur cap) was warmly welcomed by all the members as the eight member of the ''SAARC Family.'' While all the members shook hands with Mr Karzai, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz hugged him warmly.

Mr Karzai has often blamed Pakistan for fomenting terrorism in Afghanistan. He recently said that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was in Quetta and Islamabad did not much to reign or capture him.

Mr Karzai said the narcotics trade had also done a lot of damage to Afghanistan as well as the entire region. This too had to be stopped, he added.

The region had enough to learn from the past political developments in Afghanistan. But now Afghanistan was on road to recovery and had learnt from the experiences of rural development in India, petroleum exploration in Kazakhstan.

Referring to the programmes for Afghanistan's reconstruction, he said the third Regional Economic Conference for Afghanistan development would be held in Islamabad later this year.

The earlier two conferences were held in Kabul and New Delhi.

During the past five years in Afghanistan, he said, children had ''started going back to school and women to work.'' There was progress in all walks of life and to sustain that, peace and security was very important.

UNI