Afghanistan asked
Pakistan to act against Afghan Taliban militants operating on
its territory during weekend talks in Kabul, while Pakistan said
the South Asian neighbours needed to build trust, officials said
after the meetings.
The Afghan Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led
coalition in 2001, has been gaining territory in its insurgency
against the government led by President Ashraf Ghani.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long accused each other of
sheltering Taliban fighters and other Islamist militants who
conduct attacks inside their territory, charges both deny.
"We reiterate our position and state facts, asking Pakistan
to take action against terrorist groups inside its territory
that declare war against our people," a spokesman for the Afghan
president's office said in statement on Sunday.
Pakistan said after the meetings that both countries should
work together to restore trust, and that an agreement had been
reached to end a blame game over a spate of attacks.
"We will work on establishing a memorandum of trust building
to avoid such a situation in the future," Sartaj Aziz, foreign
affairs adviser to Pakistan's prime minister said on state
television on Saturday about his meeting with Ghani.
Aziz visited the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday for a
regional economic conference and also held meetings with the
president, foreign minister and national security adviser.
Ghani made closer ties with Pakistan a priority when he took
office last year, hoping Islamabad could push Afghan Taliban
leaders to the negotiating table to end Afghanistan's long war.
Progress appeared to have been made in July after both
governments said a peace process with the militants had
restarted.
This was not confirmed by the insurgents however, and early
meetings came to a halt after the Taliban's leader Mullah Omar
was revealed to have died.
News of his death was followed by a wave of deadly attacks
in Kabul that killed over 50 people and wounded hundreds more,
prompting the Afghan president to lash out at Pakistan demanding
it act against militants sheltering on its territory.
Aziz said the talks had produced an agreement to avoid any
further breakdown in relations between the countries.
"The main thing that we both agreed upon was to restore
trust, end the blame game against each other," he said.
REUTERS