Pakistan to control illegal crossing on Afghan border

Interior Minister Rehman Malik Wednesday said that Pakistan has decided to control illegal crossing of Pak-Afghan border from next month.

Talking to newsmen in Islamabad he said no body without legal documents would be allowed to cross the border from March 8.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have over 2000 kilometers porous border and both countries routinely complain against each other of failure to check illegal cross-border movement.

“Afghanistan did not cooperate to check illegal crossing of the border despite repeated requests from Pakistan. Now we have decided to pursue a strict check to control smuggling and drug trafficking from across the border,” he said.

The Interior Minister demanded on India and Afghanistan to clear their position on the statement of nominated US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel who said that India finances troubles in Pakistan.

Malik said he had asked President Hamid Karzai and Indian authorities to clear their positions on the matter.

The Minister said Pakistan was a friend of Afghanistan which has always supported and raised voice at all fora in favour of Afghanistan.

“I ask Afghanistan to clear its position that it is not involved in any terrorist activity. We have done the best on our part. I hope proper clarification would be issued, otherwise

“I would demand apology from both India and Afghanistan,” he added.

Malik said that Pakistan and Iran have agreed to set up four check posts two each on Pakistani and Iranian side of the Pak-Iran border at Taftan.

He said that Iranian Interior Minister would visit Pakistan soon to finalize modalities in this regard. He said that duty free trade zones would also be established near the check posts.

To a question about dialogue with the Taliban, the minister said that Taliban should bring forward reasonable people for the talks. He said the backbone of the Taliban had been broken and they had been weakened, adding that whenever they are weak then offer talks.

“We had offered the Taliban dialogue on different occasions but these offers were rejected,” he said, adding that the Taliban can move forward in an appropriate manner by appointing reasonable persons for talks.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Feb 27 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.