Border rift resurfaces between Pakistan and Afghanistan as Zardari asks US to intervene

By Hadi Mayar

KABUL, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari urged the United States and NATO Friday to help stop shipment of arms and ammunition from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

He made the demand in his separate meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in New York.

The demand came the same day when Pakistani media reported that security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle arms from Afghanistan into Bajaur tribal region of Pakistan.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have, for quite some time, been trading charges regarding infiltration of militants and shipment of arms and ammunition into each other's territories.

Pakistan though has never directly accused the Afghan government of fomenting trouble on its border, yet it claims that insurgents functioning in its volatile northwestern areas are receiving arms supplies and manpower from their counterparts in Afghanistan.

For its turn, the Kabul government alleges that Taliban militants are using Pakistani tribal territories as a springboard for their activities inside Afghanistan.

The U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan also claim that militants hiding in the Pakistani areas are responsible for attacks on international forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the other day that the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan are serving as an epicenter of terrorism.

In a statement in New York, she said: "The U.S. government is trying to protect allied troops (in Afghanistan) from terrorists hiding in the Pakistani border areas."