Ghani, Modi lash out at Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined hands Sunday to lash out at Pakistan on terrorism as the subject took centre stage at the inauguration of the sixth Heart of Asia ministerial conference on Sunday in Amritsar.
The theme of the conference is ‘enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region’.
President Ashraf Ghani snubbed Pakistan for exporting terror by saying that the $500 million promised by Islamabad for Afghan reconstruction would be better used fighting terrorism.
Cross border terrorism is a major concern and “we need aid to fight terrorism”, said Ghani at the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar.
“We need to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism. Pakistan has pledged 500 million dollars for Afghanistan’s development. This amount, Mr. Aziz, can be spent to contain extremism,” Ghani said, directly addressing Pakistan’s foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz, who also attended the conference.
“Afghanistan suffered the highest number of casualties last year. This is unacceptable, some still provide sanctuary for terrorists.
As a Taliban figure said recently if they had no sanctuary in Pakistan, they wouldn’t last a month,” Ghani said.
“I don’t want a blame game, I want clarifications” on what is being done to prevent the export of terror, Ghani added.
I don’t want a blame game, I want clarifications on what is being done to prevent the export of terror,” Ghani said. INP