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Pakistan will take up border violations with Karzai: FO

By Umer Farooq

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will take up the issue of border intrusions and civilian casualties by rocket and artillery fire originating from Afghanistan with Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he arrives here tomorrow (Wednesday) on a two-day official visit, the Foreign Office said on Monday.

Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told reporters during a weekly briefing that Pakistan would also raise the issue of border incursions in the next meeting of the Pak-Afghan-US Tripartite Commission.

Karzai would meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The spokeswoman confirmed that a number of people were killed in a rocket attack launched from Afghan territory on Saturday night. Investigations were underway. According to media reports, two women and four children were killed in the attack.

To a question about convening a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to discuss the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in some European newspapers, the spokeswoman said Pakistan had mobilised the OIC through its ambassadors in New York and Geneva.

Pakistan and the OIC secretary general had strongly condemned the caricatures. She said the OIC group at the United Nations in New York had also condemned it. “We believe in freedom of press but it should not be used to humiliate other religions,” she said.

The spokeswoman said that the schedule of US President George Bush’s visit to Islamabad would be announced soon. She announced that former US president Bill Clinton would visit Pakistan on February 17.

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