Pak agreements must not put our soldiers at risk

KABUL - NATO on Sunday asked Pakistan to avoid agreements that ‘put our troops and our mission under threat’ with peace talks on that side of the border linked to an increase in attacks in Afghanistan.
Adding to concern voiced by Afghan officials about Islamabad's talks with Taleban militants on its side of the frontier, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said Pakistan must take the alliance into account.
Top Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud said at the weekend that he will continue ‘jihad’, or holy war, in Afghanistan -- where there are 70,000 international troops fighting extremists -- while pursuing peace talks with Islamabad.
The new Pakistan government has meanwhile signed a peace deal with pro- Taleban militants in its Swat Valley, about 99 kilometres (55 miles) from Afghanistan.
‘They have a sovereign right to make agreements,’ Laity said, adding however, ‘We have a right to answer if those agreements put our troops and our mission under threat.
‘It is no real solution if trouble on one side of the Durand Line (the border) is merely transferred to the other side.’
Forty-four of the nearly 50,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan to help the government fight a Taleban-led insurgency have been killed in action this year, Laity said.
‘We have noticed an increase in activity in the eastern part of the country especially, which we believed can only be attributed to a reduction of Pakistan military activities,’ Laity said.
‘We are making clear to Pakistan that in the legitimate desire to reach a peaceful settlement in their areas, they got to take us into account,’ he said.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told the same media briefing that Pakistan territory ‘should not be used to kill innocent people in Afghanistan.’
‘Previous peace accords between Pakistan's government and insurgents have shown that it was a golden time for insurgents -- they got equipped, they got ready and they launched operations against both governments,’ he said.
Azimi appeared to be referring to a now-defunct 2006 peace agreement in Pakistan's North Waziristan area, which led to an increase in suicide and other attacks just across the border in Afghanistan.