Karzai attacks Pakistan on terror links at SAARC Summit

Colombo, Aug 2 : Afghan President Hamid Karzai today attacked Pakistan for providing safe sanctuary to terrorists.

"It is because of the safe havens and sanctuary which terrorists are getting in Pakistan, the country lost their great leader Benazir Bhutto," he claimed.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, after departing a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally in Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled general election of 2008 where she was a leading opposition candidate.

Mourning the deaths of innocents in Gujarat and Bangalore, Karzai said, "Terrorism is a result of narrow minded politics and institutional support.

A series of bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad that took place recently shocked people across India and in other parts of the world.

Karzai also said that India and Afghanistan were not the only countries affected y terrorism.

Karzai opened his speech at the 15th SAARC Summit here by expressing his shock and anger over the July 7 suicide bombing on the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

The ISI is being blamed by New Delhi and Kabul for masterminding the attack which claimed more than 50 lives, including four Indian staffers.

Pakistan has strongly rejected a New York Times report claiming that the ISI was behind the attack.

Describing the report as "rubbish", Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi said his country was too suffering from the menace of terrorism, and promised to cooperate with neighbouring countries to combat terror.

Talked tough on terrorism, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said terrorism anywhere is terrorism, there is no good terrorism or bad terrorism.

Bangladesh Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed, who was also attending the Summit said "Bangladesh is against terrorism in all its manifestations."

Making a strong pitch against terrorism in his address, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said terrorism continues to rear its ugly head in our region.

Referring to the Kabul, Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts, Dr. Singh said terrorism knows no boundaries and is the single largest threat to stability and progress of the region.

"We cannot afford to loose this battle against the ideology of hatred, fanticism and those who wants to destroy are society," he added .

The Indian Prime Minister also urged the SAARC nations to fight terrorism jointly. By Naveen Kapoor

ANI