Afghanistan Times
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By Akhtar M. Nikzad-KABUL: Civil society activists urged the International Court of Justice (ICG) to prosecute the former Pakistani military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, for his support to militant groups in Afghanistan.
Musharraf in an interview with the Guardian recently confessed that when he was in power, Pakistan supported terrorist groups to undermine the government of the ex-President Hamid Karzai.
Afghanistan Tribal Council, Afghan National Movement and Afghanistan Civil Society’s Coordination Center in a joint press conference here on Tuesday came hard on Pervez Musharraf for his recent remarks and said that the international community should not turn its blind eye towards the issue.
They stressed that Musharraf’s remarks were not accidental, but had he repeated the same comments in his interview with Wall Street Journal on 25th February this year, where he said that the Afghan government should share power with the Taliban.
Ghulam Jailani Zwak, a civil society activist, said Musarraf’s comment represented his government’s hostility toward Afghanistan.
“This is not the first time that a Pakistani official confess his government’s inimical foreign policy towards Afghans, but the Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, in his speech to the parliament had said that he managed to destroy Afghanistan’s army by fueling civil wars in the country,” Zwak added.
He said that the Taliban by receiving support from Musharraf’s government in Pakistan launched several terrorist attacks on Afghan government institutions and foreign embassies in Afghanistan that led to killing of innocent civilians. “The militant group attacked Indian Embassy in 2008 and then it launched an organized attack on US embassy in 2011,” he added.
He said that based on international laws, Pakistan’s engagement in proxy wars was clear aggression of the country against Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
Atiqullah Amarkhil, another participant of the conference, said Pakistan itself claimed responsibility for war crimes in Afghanistan, but the international community is still reluctant to take any action.
He added that the Afghan government has constantly mounted its concerns over the past 13 years that Pakistan is providing sanctuaries to the Taliban and global terrorist networks. “US drone strike killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad area of Pakistan, but the international community is yet to take any action against Pakistan for its support to militants,” Amarkhel added.
The three organizations also issued resolution, where they asked the International Court of Justice to prosecute Musharraf for war crimes in Afghanistan.
The resolution urged the international community to black list Pakistan in order to put pressure the country to restrain from supporting militancy and extremism in the region. They in the resolution sought war compensation from Pakistan.
Participants of the conference said that it was time for militant groups to realize that they are being used as a tool of foreign policy.
