Pakistan needs peace and stability in Afghanistan, the president told US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met him after a visit to Kabul, the government said in a statement yesterday.
President General Pervez Musharraf made his comments at a meeting with Clinton, who called on him along with Senator Evan Bayh and Congressman John McHugh in the eastern city of Lahore late on Sunday.
Pakistan is a key ally of the US in its war on terror.
The visit by Clinton -- the wife of a former US president who is considering a run for the job -- came weeks after Musharraf's government announced a plan to plant land mines and build a fence along parts of its frontier with Afghanistan to stop Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas from crossing over.
The Afghan government has opposed the plan, saying it would separate families instead of preventing cross-border terrorism.
At the meeting with Clinton, Musharraf said a "peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in Pakistan's vital interest," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
It said Musharraf asserted that security along the shared border was a joint responsibility and that both sides should make an effort to ensure stability in the region.
Musharraf also "underlined the importance of the strategic relationship between Pakistan and the United States and expressed satisfaction at the deepening of cooperation in diverse fields," it said.
According to the statement, Musharraf also "affirmed Pakistan's firm resolve to fight extremism and terrorism," and in this context, he "highlighted the holistic approach being followed by Pakistan."
Pakistan was once a main ally of the Taliban. But it switched sides after a US-led coalition force invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US.
Since then, Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 troops in tribal areas near Afghanistan to flush out foreign militants and their local supporters.
Meanwhile at least two people were killed in a bomb blast at an Afghan refugee camp in northwest Pakistan, police said yesterday.
The explosion occurred late on Sunday at a house in the Jalozai Afghan camp, 45km east of Peshawar, local police chief Muhammad Tahir said.
"So far we can confirm that two people were killed in the blast," Tahir said, but gave no further details.
A report on the GEO television station however said the blast killed four people and destroyed the house of the leader of the camp, Maulvi Masoodullah, as he was receiving three guests from eastern Afghanistan.
Masoodullah, who had been wounded in the blast, told the television station his 25-year-old brother and three guests had been killed in the blast, but police did not confirm this.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS