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ISLAMABAD, May 16 (AFP)-Afghanistan's Taliban promised on Tuesday to help Pakistan eradicate cross-border smuggling, an official report said. Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told a visiting Afghan delegation led by his Taliban counterpart, Mawlawi Abdul Razaq; he was concerned that goods purchased by the Afghan government were illegally finding their way onto local markets. The Afghan delegation "agreed to tighten security" on the border to check "illegal movement of the goods and personnel," said the agency. Razaq, who arrived on a U.N. plane from Kabul on Sunday, said he had concrete proposals to address issues between the countries, whose relationship was described as "brotherly." The talks would continue Wednesday, the agency said, adding that it had been decided that a transit trade agreement would be discussed separately by commerce officials. Officials earlier said the high-level talks were also expected to focus on drug trafficking, terrorism and the return of some 1.6 million Afghans displaced during Afghanistan's 1979-89 anti-communist war. Razaq's eight-member team includes senior officials from the ministries of trade, foreign affairs, finance and border regions. Pakistan's seven-month old military government has recently tightened controls on the Afghan border to curb smuggling and initiated a drive to recover illegal arms. |
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