Afghan border talks

Pak-US officials fail to meet

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: A scheduled meeting between American and Pakistani military officials on Monday to discuss the increased security measures on the Pak-Afghan border failed to take place, military sources told Daily Times.

US Colonel Michael Jane, in charge of border security, did not show for the meeting with Khyber Rifles Commandant Colonel Tassaduk Hussain at Torkham, some 56 kilometres west of Peshawar, the sources said.

“No reason was given for Col Jane’s failure to reach the border meeting. We don’t know why he did not turn up. We received no message beforehand that he wasn’t coming,” a source in the Khyber Rifles said. This is the third scheduled meeting between Pakistani and American officials that did not take place. The Pakistani official failed to turn up for the first, scheduled for May 12, while his American counterpart failed to turn up for the second, arranged for May 16. According to the sources, the American military delegation was asked to hold the talks inside Pakistan, which it declined. “The American side said it would meet in no man’s land.”

The American military officials’ interest in the meeting was to “coordinate” with Pakistani military counterparts to stop the alleged infiltration of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the sources said.

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