Pak. withdraws staff from its mission in Kabul

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 24. In a day of fast-moving developments, Pakistan today announced that it had temporarily withdrawn all its diplomatic and non-diplomatic staff from its mission in Kabul and consulates in different cities of Afghanistan, even as a high- level military delegation from the United States arrived here to exchange notes with the military establishment on the nature of co-operation it expected from Islamabad in its fight against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime.

The ostensible reason for the decision of the Musharraf Government was the ``prevailing security environment,'' but it was obvious that Islamabad had decided to distance itself from the militia as the hour of reckoning apparently approached.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman was at pains to emphasise that Islamabad's decision did not amount to snapping of diplomatic ties with the Taliban, as the United Arab Emirates had done two days ago.

He pointed out that the Taliban Embassy continued to function in the Pakistani capital with limited staff, as mandated by the United Nations Security Council sanctions of January this year. The spokesman recalled his observations made on Saturday that in the perception of the Musharraf Government the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad served as a window to the world to know the Taliban and vice-versa.

The announcement to withdraw the staff from Afghanistan came even as the high-level U.S. Defence Department team, led by Air Force Brig-Gen. Kevin Chilton, was engaged in parleys with their counterparts here on the nature of co- operation the U.S. expected from Pakistan in the coming days and weeks in its fight against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

The spokesman maintained that the delegation was in Islamabad basically for the purpose of information-sharing. ``We would like to know what the U.S. would like to do in its pursuit against international terrorism. The U.S. mission is preliminary in nature,'' he maintained at a crowded news conference.

The spokesman reiterated that the declared U.S. goal was to combat terrorism and to bring to book the culprits responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Asked if Pakistan had sought any guarantee from the U.S. against possible aggression by India, the spokesman said Islamabad was not looking for any guarantees and its forces were fully prepared to thwart any evil designs.

When a journalist asked about media reports about plans of certain countries to bring back the former King of Afghanistan, the spokesman said Pakistan was not in the game of placing governments in various capitals. ``No puppet government in Afghanistan has survived. The people of Afghanistan are fiercely independent.''

In a related development, Pakistan, while insisting on the Taliban to abide by the U.N. resolutions to hand over Osama bin Laden for trial by appropriate authorities, also told the Bush administration that any decision to use force in Afghanistan should be mandated by the U.N. Security Council.

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