Afghanistan Urges Pakistan to Stop Naming Missiles After Its Heroes

AFP

Afghanistan urges Pakistan to stop naming missiles after its heroes Thu Feb 23, 5:21 AM ET

Afghanistan's government said it had asked neighbouring Pakistan to stop naming its nuclear-capable missiles after Afghan heroes.

Kabul had also asked Islamabad in a letter to consider renaming its current Ghauri and Abdali missiles, named after conquerors of parts of the subcontinent, Information and Culture Minister Sayed Makhdom Raheen told AFP on Thursday.

Mohammad Ghauri was a 12th-century Muslim conqueror of India who came from Afghanistan. The 18th-century Pashtun king Ahmad Shah Abdali led several invasions into India and founded the first Pashtun dynasty in 1748.

Pakistan also has a missile named after Mahmud Ghaznavi, who lived in the 11th century and invaded modern-day India as many as 17 times. He died in Ghazni in southern Afghanistan in 1030.

"Afghan kings and emperors such as Ghauri, Abdali and Ghaznavi spread art and civilization across the sub-continent," the minister told AFP. "Their names should not be used for tools of war and killing."

Afghanistan would not mind if Pakistan used the names of Afghan heroes on their peaceful inventions, Raheen said.

Pakistan has developed its nuclear arsenal amid a half-century standoff with its historic rival India. The neighbours have already fought three wars and routinely carry out tests of nuclear-capable missiles.

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad meanwhile are tense over an insurgency in Afghanistan, blamed by Afghan officials in large part on militants based in Pakistan.

The Afghan government has demanded that Pakistan do more to crack down on the militants, who are linked to the ousted Taliban regime and the Al-Qaeda terror network.


Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse.