Afghan president backs Pakistan mosque assault

KABUL, July 11 (Reuters) Afghan President Hamid Karzai today supported Pakistan for attacking Taliban-style militants dug-in at a mosque and urged his neighbour to crack down on all radical religious groups there.

Karzai has long complained that Afghan Taliban rebels have safe havens in Pakistan from which they are able to direct attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan denies the charge, but the accusations have strained relations between the neighbours.

Pakistani security forces today were securing the last parts of a mosque and school complex in Islamabad, a day after an assault that killed a rebel cleric, more than 50 Islamist fighters and eight soldiers.

''We fully support the government and the nation of Pakistan for the campaign that is going on against terrorism,'' Karzai told a news conference.

''(But) our expectation is that this campaign becomes more real and ... this campaign also covers those individuals who come from Pakistan and kill Afghanistan's sons,'' he said at his heavily fortified palace in the Afghan capital.

Karzai said such steps by Pakistan would strengthen and consolidate the ties between the two nations and would put an end to misunderstandings between them.

The clerics who led the militants at the Lal Masjid mosque sought to impose strict Islamic laws in the capital and incited followers, mostly drawn from Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province, to run a vigilante anti-vice campaign.

Most of the hundreds of people, including women, who barricaded themselves in at the mosque were supporters of Islamic radicalism similar to that of the Afghan Taliban government that was overthrown by US-led forces in 2001.

Karzai, who has been leading Afghanistan since the Taliban's removal, has repeatedly accused Pakistan, the former key backer of the Taliban, for not cracking down on the Taliban and their allies who cross the border and carry out raids in Afghanistan.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in the past 18 months in Afghanistan by violence, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's fall.

Pakistan says it does all it can to curb the militants' cross border infiltration and says the problem largely lies with Karzai's government.

Reuters KK GC1823