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Let us fight terrorism together: Manmohan

Amit Baruah

``Both India and Afghanistan have suffered a great deal due to the menace''

NEW DELHI: India, Afghanistan and Pakistan should pool their experience and knowledge to effectively deal with terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.

At a joint press conference with the visiting Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, here, Dr. Singh said India had been a victim of terrorism for nearly 20 years. "Terrorism today is a menace which plagues many countries. And, in our region, both India and Afghanistan have suffered a great deal."

Pointing out the new dimensions of the problem, Dr. Singh said: "I find in our region that even Pakistan is not immune from terrorism." Mr. Karzai said Afghanistan needed to work with India and other neighbours to tackle the problem.

Asked whether Pakistan was part of the problem, he said Afghanistan had been talking to its Pakistani "brothers.'' They were continuing the discussions and hoped to find a more effective way of fighting the menace.

On the possibility of Pakistan granting transit rights for Indian goods to enter Afghanistan, Dr. Singh said he had not given up hope.

He had raised the transit issue with both Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Mr. Karzai, Dr. Singh said. Mr. Karzai was hopeful that a day would come when Indian goods entered Afghanistan via Pakistan.

Dr. Singh announced that India would provide additional assistance worth $50 million to Afghanistan. With this, New Delhi's total financial commitment to Kabul would be $650 million. Of this, $200 million was already spent on different projects.

Commending Mr. Karzai for bringing a large business delegation with him, he said: "We would like to encourage such interaction [between businesspersons] ... in order to encourage trade and investment ties."

India would consider establishing a line of credit for $50 million.

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