Army chief visits Kabul to enhance intel cooperation

Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif visited Kabul on Wednesday to meet Afghanistan's president for talks on enhancing intelligence cooperation a day after the Peshawar school tragedy.

Sharif, who was accompanied by the head of Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, was due to meet President Ashraf Ghani and General John Campbell, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, according to a statement from the military.

Offering sympathy and condolences on behalf of the government and people of Afghanistan, President Ghani said that "we share the pains and sufferings of Pakistan's people, and condemn in the strongest possible terms this terrorist, brutal, non-Islamic and inhuman act," according to a statement posted on the Afghan Presidential Palace website on Wednesday.

Some of the militants who attacked the army-run school on Tuesday spoke in Arabic, a senior security official said, suggesting they had links across the border in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan routinely accuses Pakistan of providing shelter to the Afghan Taliban within its borders, while Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of protecting members of the Pakistani Taliban.

Mullah Fazlullah, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, is believed to be hiding in northeastern Afghanistan. The handing over of Fazlullah to Pakistan may figure in the talks in Kabul, the security official said.

Retired general and security analyst Talat Masood said: "General Sharif wants to strengthen military-to-military and intelligence-to-intelligence level cooperation between the two countries otherwise sanctuaries in Afghanistan will be used against Pakistan."

AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 12/18/2014 page12)