Australian DM urges Pakistan to redouble anti-terror effort

Australian DM urges Pakistan to redouble anti-terror effort

Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith on Thursday (AEST) told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from Belgium that Pakistan need to redouble its efforts to combat extremism.

His comments came following the Afghan interior ministry had arrested six people allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Also on Sept. 20, peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber at his Kabul home. Afghan officials claim the assassination was carried out by a Pakistani.

Smith, who is currently in Belgium for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) talks, told ABC TV on Thursday (Australian Time) that the alleged plot to assassinate Karzai is indicative of a new tactic being used by terrorists, and the Taliban have been utilizing high-profile suicide bomb propaganda-style attacks.

"Regrettably in the case of former President Rabbani, they have been successful and that's a significant blow," Smith said. " Our analysis is the reason they have moved to these high-profile propaganda attacks is because they can't respond on the ground."

He said Pakistan needed to boost its efforts to combat terrorist networks within its own territories, which had started to take over from al-Qaida and the Taliban, because that is a threat to Pakistan itself no just a threat to NATO or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces in Afghanistan.

"We can't allow the good work we've done against al-Qaida, the good we've done against the Afghanistan Taliban to now be overtaken ... so that needs to be confronted," he said.

The NATO meeting in Brussels of Belgium will allows defense ministers from NATO and the International Security Assistance Force to consider progress in the Afghanistan conflict, and Smith specified that the 2014 date for handover of security to Afghan- led forces would be a focus of the discussions as would post-2014 commitments.

Editor: Chen Zhi

English.news.cn   2011-10-06 09:40:01 FeedbackPrintRSS
CANBERRA, Oct. 6 (Xinhua)