Pakistan, Afghanistan jirga commissions conclude 1st round of talks

Senior Pakistani and Afghan officials on Monday concluded with positive note the first round of their two-day talks to convene traditional tribal jirgas to contain violence in the border areas, an interior ministry statement said.

The meeting held in very "cordial atmosphere" and both jirga commissions explained their point of view, said the statement issued by Pakistan's Interior Ministry.

"A joint statement will be issued at the conclusion of the talks," the statement said but did not give any further details.

Chairman of Afghan Jirga Commission, Pir Sayed Ahmad Gilani, leads a 12-member Afghan delegation in the meeting while the five- strong Pakistani team is headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who is chairman of Pakistani Jirga Commission.

This is the first joint meeting of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Jirga Commissions. During the talks in Islamabad on March 12-13, the two sides would discuss all matters relating to the proposed jirga meetings, and they would exchange suggestions to make the jirgas fruitful.

These discussions are a follow-up to an agreement reached between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai during a meeting in September 2006.

Authorities in both countries had agreed to hold jirgas on both sides of the Pakistani-Afghan border to contain violence in the tribal areas along the border and curtail illegal cross-border movements.

Since joining the Washington-led war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistani government has sent some 80,000 troops to hunt al-Qaida militants and Taliban fighters who sneaked into Pakistan's tribal region to seek refuge following the fall of Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua