Terrorism is Pakistan's policy: Afghan Speaker

Afghanistan on Saturday dubbed Pakistan's absence from the South Asian Speakers Summit as "unfortunate" and said Islamabad has adopted terrorism as its policy which would prove a serious threat for it.

"It is unfortunate that Pakistan is not attending the summit. We don't know the reason, perhaps they can say it better. Being the neighbouring country we would have been happier if Pakistan would have attended the summit," Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, Speaker of National Assembly of Afghanistan, told IANS.

Dubbing terrorism as a serious threat to South Asia, Ibrahimi said that Pakistan has adopted terrorism as it policy.

"Terrorism remains a threat to the South Asian countries, including Pakistan but unfortunately rulers of Pakistan have always supported terrorism. This policy of Pakistan is not in the interest of the South Asian region. In the future it is going to be a big threat to Pakistan," he said.

Ibrahimi also said that terrorism is a very serious threat to Afghanistan.

"We invite cooperation from India towards improvement in people's life, security and political areas in the region. We believe that this is in the interest of the people of South Asia," he said.

Lauding India for its approach towards Afghanistan, the Speaker said, "India is a big country and is an effective and influential power in the region. India has been a brotherly friend to Afghanistan and in the last 15 years it has supported Afghanistan with more than $2 billion aid."

"What we want from India is this relation to be further improved and developed. We want improvement in security and also enhanced relations between both countries. Hopefully it will continue in the future," he added.

Afghanistan has several times in the past voiced concern over terrorism emanating from Pakistan, and accused its neighbour of harbouring the Taliban in the border areas. India and Afghanistan, joined by South Asian neighbours Bangladesh and Bhutan, had boycotted the Saarc summit in Islamabad in November, leading to its deferment.

(Brajendra Nath Singh can be reached at brajendra.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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