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Those trying to block Indo-Afghan trade will be blocked

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Sep 14 2016 | 8:22 PM IST
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani today tore into Pakistan's stance of "good terrorists and bad terrorists" saying the approach is "extremely shortsighted" and warned that those who try to block increasing Indo-Afghan trade will be blocked themselves.
Mincing no words, Ghani said Pakistan is a country which celebrates "every single one of its defeat" as victory and every single one of its intelligence failure as a confirmation of conspiracy theory.
In his address at the IDSA here, the Afghan President also said countries that feel threatened by increasing Indo-Afghan cooperation, especially in the military side, "need to change their outlook and not blame others".
Noting that stability does not come through the barrel of the gun, he said, "We see that there is a distinction between good and bad terrorists. Good terrorists are the ones that attack your neighbours, bad terrorists are the ones who attack you. This type of approach is enormously shortsighted. The blowback phenomenon is going to be bad. Terrorism will bite, like a snake, who feeds it".
He stressed on the need for regional cooperation to fight terrorists and said one country's response is "totally insufficient".
Asked about Pakistan blocking road route to Afghanistan via the Wagah border, Ghani said both countries need to worry as their is air connectivity and efforts are on to increase that.
However, he said those who try to block two great nations, will be blocked themselves.

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Ghani said that Afghanistan is land locked but thinks openly and "Pakistan has a coast but acts like a land locked nation".
He said that there is a war in Pakistan that the media doesn't speak about.
"There are 207,000 members of Pakistan Army just in Khyber Patunkhwa and of course in Balochistan. This violence needs coverage. This needs understanding.
"We need to understand why a force of 207,000, which after 1898 is the greatest force assembled, is required there. My humble suggestion is use of force alone is not going to do it. It requires regional common understanding," he said.
However, asked about his views on Balochistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, he said Afghanistan is a mature state and does not believe in interfering in internal affairs of another country.
Ghani also rejected Pakistani allegations that India's external intelligence agency RA&W operates in Afghanistan.
"We don't let our soil be used by anyone against another country," he said and questioned how many members of Haqqani network, who target Afghanistan, has Pakistan killed in comparison to the TTP leaders, who target Pakistan, that the Afghan military has killed.
He stressed on the need for creating jobs to eradicate the source of terror and pointed out that large number of people in Pakistan are falling under poverty line every year.
He said weak market institutions are as bad as a weak state.
Ghani also spoke about the need to revitalise global institutions to fight terror and for faster exchange of information and coordination.

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First Published: Sep 14 2016 | 8:22 PM IST

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