President Hamid Karzai lashed out once again at Pakistan, saying on Monday that a statement by a Pakistani cleric endorsing suicide bombings in Afghanistan shows the country is not sincere in efforts to fight terrorism.
“Afghanistan wants a real struggle against terrorism and wants the Pakistani government to realise that both our nations are burning in the same fire,” Mr Karzai said, speaking at a press conference with visiting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. “The Pakistani government has an essential and important role in putting out this fire,” Mr Karzai added.
Karzai made the comment in response to a question about a statement last week by the head of the Pakistani clerics’ council who had been scheduled to travel to Afghanistan for a meeting of the two countries’ religious leaders.
The cleric, Maulana Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, said in a television interview that suicide attacks in Afghanistan are lawful because NATO troops are invaders that have occupied the country.
He further said Mr Karzai’s statement on Monday had shut the door to the Pakistani clerics taking part in the planned conference of religious leaders. “It will not happen until Mr Karzai and the Afghan government apologise,” Maulana Ashrafi said over the telephone from Cairo.
NATO Chief Fogh Rasmussen also condemned the cleric’s statement and called on Pakistan to do more to rein in the extremist militants along its borders.