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Pakistan, Afghanistan To Sign Extradition Treaty
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| Pakistan army watches Afghan borders |
Report by Aamir Latif
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 15 (IslamOnline) - Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to sign an extradition treaty aimed at exchanging "criminals" wanted by each side, foreign office officials told Islam Online Tuesday, January 15, 2002.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held at the Chaman border on January 12, 2002, which was attended by governor of Kandahar Gul Agha and some U.S. Army officials.
Pakistani officials who were present in the meeting included Commandant Frontier Corps, Col. Ghulam Sarwar, and other senior officials.
The official signing ceremony will be held during the forthcoming visit of a high-level Afghan delegation to Pakistan, officials said.
The meeting, which continued for more than an hour, discussed the border situation and took some decisions for improving things on both sides of the border, a senior Pakistani official told IOL correspondent by telephone.
Both sides have also agreed in the meeting to remove the houses from the “no man land” area to clear it from the criminal activities and keep an eye on the movement of terrorists and especially members of Al-Qaeda and Taliban, the official said.
Pakistan claims that scores of (allegedly) sectarian terrorists, who were harbored by the Taliban government, are still at large most probably in the southern parts of the war-hacked country.
The Pakistani officials informed the Afghan authorities about the measures taken by Pakistan to keep a vigilant eye on the border for the arrest of (alleged) terrorists and members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Pakistani authorities emphasized that no Al-Qaeda members would be allowed to enter into Pakistan and all possible steps would be taken in this connection.
The governor of Kandahar said that relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan would further be strengthened with the passage of time.
A Pakistani official quoted Agha as saying, "Pakistan is our second home and together we launched holy war against former USSR,".
He assured the Pakistani authorities that the interim set up would take every possible step to arrest the terrorists wanted by Pakistan, the official said.
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