ISLAMABAD: Important on-and-off-the-record meetings are set to take place in London over the span of a week as President Asif Ali Zardari and Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani arrive in Britain.
The two will be accompanied by their key lieutenants and their stay in the British capital for a significantly long time is seen as important as elections approach in Pakistan.
Sources said that the president and the army chief will jointly hold talks with the British government as well as with Afghan government delegation as part of the trilateral dialogue series.
It is said that President Hamid Karzai will also be staying in London for a long duration as part of the same meetings. President Zardari and General Kayani will meet David Cameron and other senior British government officials about the situation on Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan.
Boy killed, 8 hurt as bomb hits Afghan bird fight
KANDAHAR: A bomb exploded among spectators at a bird fight in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing a teenager and wounding up to eight others, police said.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was launched against a “gambling match where local police were present”.
Gambling on animals forced to fight — from quail and roosters to camels, rams and bulls — is popular in Afghanistan but was banned by the Taliban during their rule from 1996-2001.
The motorcycle-bomb exploded at a bird fighting pit in the Greshk district of restive Helmand province where a crowd of more than 100 people had gathered to watch the regular match, said local police chief Shadi Khan.
“The explosion has killed a 13-year-old boy and wounded eight other people, all of them innocent civilians,” he said.
Agencies
