Karzai: Attacks Wearing Thin on Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan public is losing patience with attacks launched from Pakistan, President Hamid Karzai told Pakistan's foreign minister.

"The Afghan people are suffering from terrorist violence on a daily basis, and the patience of our people to continue to bear this situation is running thin," Karzai said in a statement Thursday, following Pakistan Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri's visit to the Afghan capital.

Karzai also warned that instability in Afghanistan would have ramifications for its neighbor.

"In the same way that Afghans cannot imagine a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan without a peaceful and stable Pakistan, it is also impossible for Pakistan to have peace and stability without a peaceful and stable Afghanistan," he said.

Kasuri said that by blaming each other, the two countries cannot solve their problems.

"We feel hurt when accusations are leveled against the government of Pakistan if there are acts of terrorism in Afghanistan," Kasuri told reporters Friday. "By blaming each other, we will not make headway. Therefore it is necessary to build trust between our two countries," he said.

Relations between the two Muslim nations have been badly strained by Afghan contentions that Pakistan has been giving sanctuary to Taliban militants, contributing to a surge in the Afghan insurgency this year that has killed nearly 4,000 people, mostly militants slain in fighting between Afghan and Western forces.

Pakistan, a former backer of the Taliban government ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, denies that its intelligence agencies still give tacit support to the militants. It says it is doing all it can to patrol the border, which is populated on both sides by Pashtun tribes from which the Taliban draws its support.

Pakistani officials blame the instability in southern and eastern Afghanistan on a failure by Afghan and international forces to bring security and development to the lawless region and public dissatisfaction with Karzai's government.

During Kasuri's two-day visit, Afghan and Pakistani officials also discussed proposed tribal councils, or jirgas, aimed at countering the Taliban influence in the region.