Pak intelligence calls for Afghan border to be closed
By ANIMonday, March 15, 2010
LONDON - Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has called for tighter control of the Afghan border by NATO troops to stop Taliban fighters from escaping its operations in the North West Frontier. ajor General Athar Abbas, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), claimed that a cross-border flow into Afghanistan was hampering its campaign to crush the Taliban.
“We are at full stretch. I have to say that the border is a joint responsibility,” The Telegraph quoted Major General Athar Abass, as saying in a presentation to the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank.
“NATO must stop the cross border flow,” he said.
Pakistan has rapidly expanded its presence along the Afghanistan border, which crosses mountains and deserts, after years of complaints from NATO that it was not doing enough to stop Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters finding safe haven in its territory.
According to Major General Abbas, there are now 821 Pakistan army checkpoints on the border, but just 112 Afghan Army or NATO posts.
Pakistan officials have proclaimed the success of its operations in the autonomous territories dominated by Pashtun tribes that have sheltered the Taliban. (ANI)
