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Karzai warns Islamabad over “terrorist nests”

— Photo: AP

Tough stand: Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a press conference in Kabul on Sunday.

Kabul: In his toughest stance yet on crushing Pakistan-based insurgency, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said his strife-torn country had the right to dismantle “terrorist nests” in the neighbouring country in “self-defence”.

“Afghanistan has the right to destroy terrorist nests on the other side of the border in self-defence,” he told a news conference here.

Mr. Karzai’s warning is the first open threat to send troops inside Pakistan though he has often confronted Islamabad on its failure to prevent Taliban from finding a safe haven in the tribal areas.

The statement came days after U.S.-led forces carried out an air strike in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan killing 11 Pakistani soldiers.

The Pentagon says it was targeting militants, but the attack angered Pakistan which summoned the U.S. envoy to lodge its protests.

“When they cross the border from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and coalition troops, it gives us exactly the right to go back and do the same,” said Mr. Karzai, referring to the situation along the border with Pakistan.

Mr. Karzai also warned elusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Pakistani Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who Islamabad believes was responsible for the assassination of the former Premier, Benazir Bhutto, in December last.

“Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house,” said the President.

“Fazlullah and Mehsud or any one behind them must know this, that today’s Afghanistan is not the voiceless Afghanistan of yesterday. Today it has both the voice, the tools and courage for action,” he said. “We’ll defeat them and we’ll avenge all that they’ve done in Afghanistan for the past so many years.”

Mr. Karzai’s tough words came two days after over 1,100 prisoners including hundreds of militants escaped from a jail in southern Kandahar in an attack by the insurgents.

He has repeatedly blamed Pakistan of failing to prevent insurgents active in the tribal zone from slipping into Afghanistan.

This week, a study by Rand Corporation, a leading U.S. think-tank, found that elements of Pakistan’s ISI and its paramilitaries were actively backing Taliban insurgents. — PTI

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