Meanwhile in Afghanistan

Pakistan is training snake: Karzai

Dawn Report (Pakistan Newspaper)

WASHINGTON, Sept 22: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said Pakistan is ‘training a snake that can also bite the trainer.’

Addressing the US Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, Mr Karzai claimed that Pakistan’s toleration of pro-Taliban militants had contributed to Afghanistan’s instability.

He said that cooperating with terrorists was like ‘trying to train a snake against somebody else.’ He added: “You cannot train a snake. It will come and bite you.”

In a direct reference to the domestic politics of Pakistan where opposition groups accuse President Pervez Musharraf of encouraging religious parties, Mr Karzai said some in the region were using terrorists to maintain political power.

Presidents Karzai and Musharraf have used much of this week’s UN General Assembly meeting for trading barbs and criticizing each other’s efforts to fight terrorists.

Mr Karzai played down a growing Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan that aims at toppling his US-backed government.

He said the Taliban had killed teachers and children and destroyed clinics and schools. “Is that strength? No. Is it popular base? No.”

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"Musharraf and I know Mullah Omar is in Pakistan": Karzai

Islamabad, Sept 23, IRNA

Pakistan-Afghanistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said that Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden were both in Pakistan, charging that Islamabad's support of militants had made Afghanistan unstable while playing down reports that the Taliban was gaining strength inside his country.

According to the Daily Times, Karzai said that the Taliban leader was for sure in Pakistan, adding that "Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf knows it and I know it."
He is truly there, he added.

On the whereabouts of Bin Laden, Karzai said: "If I told you he was in Pakistan, President Musharraf, my friend, would be mad at me. But if I said he was in Afghanistan, that would not be true." In a veiled reference to Musharraf and his alleged support of militants, Karzai said that some in the region used extremists to maintain their political power.

Some of these regimes are definitely using extremism as an instrument of policy, and that is why Afghanistan has suffered, he said.

He equated cooperating with terrorists to trying to train a snake against somebody else.

"You cannot train a snake. It will come and bite you." Playing down the Taliban-led insurgency that aims to topple his US-backed government, the Afghan president noted that the group was targeting teachers and children as well as clinics and schools.

"Is that strength ? No.Is it popular base? No."
He said that his government had been unable to prevent the Taliban from committing acts of terrorism due to inadequate police and military structures, adding that the country had been weakened from years of war.