Pakistan stoked tensions with Afghanistan on Monday, summoning the Afghan envoy and vowing to defend its territory after President Hamid Karzai threatened cross-border attacks on militants.
Karzai sent relations between the two allies in the US-led 'war on terror' plummeting to a new low on Sunday when he said that his war-torn country would be justified in striking Taliban rebels based on Pakistani soil. As hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in support of Karzai's comments, US President George W. Bush said he understood the frustration in Afghanistan, but urged talks Karzai.' Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said Afghan ambassador Anwar Anwarzai was summoned to the foreign office on Monday "and a strong protest was lodged over President Karzai's statement."
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned Karzai's "irresponsible, threatening" comments, saying in a statement that he would "like to make it absolutely clear that Pakistan shall defend its territorial sovereignty."
The volatile situation on the porous 2,500-km border was highlighted last week when Pakistan accused "cowardly" US-led coalition forces of killing 11 soldiers in an air strike. PM's Advisor on interior Rehman Malik told reporters that the border with Afghanistan and movements across it would be monitored round the clock and a satellite image database maintained. Kabul had no immediate comment on the developments in Islamabad, but nearly 2,500 tribesmen and religious leaders gathered in two eastern Afghan provinces to back their president.
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