KABUL - Pakistan must not allow its soil to be used to launch attacks in Afghanistan, the government said Saturday after a Pakistani militant vowed to continue "jihad" while pursuing peace talks with Islamabad.
The statement by Pakistani Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud Saturday was "naked interference" in Afghanistan's affairs, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
"Our hope from the Pakistan government is to prevent its soil being used against our country," Azimi said.
The new government in Islamabad launched talks with Taliban on its side of the border soon after winning elections in February amid concerns that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's military approach is spawning more violence.
Azimi reiterated calls by Afghan and Western leaders for a combined approach to fighting the extremism that straddles the border.
"Any agreement must be based on regional and bilateral interests," he said. "Any unilateral agreement posing threat to a second country would be against the interests of the region and the world."
Extremists in Pakistan are said to be sending fighters across the border to attack Afghan, US and NATO troops as part of a Taliban-led insurgency. The religious hardliners were themselves in power in Kabul between 1996-2001.
Mehsud told reporters in his South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border Saturday: "Islam does not recognise boundaries and jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan will continue."
The statement made Afghanistan "even more determined in the fight against terrorism," Azimi said.
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