the Taliban in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. As the closest state to the Taliban government, Musharraf was in negotiations with them in the aftermath of the attacks regarding the severity of the situation before allying with the U.S. and declaring to stamp out extremism. He was, however criticised by NATO and the Afghan government of not doing enough to prevent pro Taliban or Al-Qaeda militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. Tensions with Afghanistan increased in 2006, with Hamid Karzai, then president of Afghanistan, accusing Musharraf of failing to act against Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan, claiming that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar was based in Quetta, Pakistan. In response, Musharraf hit back saying "None of this is true and Karzai knows it." George W. Bush encouraged the two leaders to unite in the war on terror during a trio meeting. Violence in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa escalated in the late 2000s amid fighting between militants and Pakistani soldiers backed by the U.S. Relations with India After the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, Musharraf expressed his sympathies to Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and sent a plane load of relief supplies to India. In 2004, Musharraf began a series of talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute. In 2004 a cease-fire was agreed upon along the Line of Control. Many troops still patrol the border. Relations with Saudi Arabia In 2006, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited Pakistan for the first time as King. Musharraf honoured King Abdullah with the Nishan-e-Pakistan. Musharraf received the King Abdul-Aziz Medallion in 2007. Nuclear scandals From September 2001 until his resignation in 2007 from the military, Musharraf's presidency was affected by scandals relating to nuclear weapons, which were detrimental to his authoritative legitimacy in the country and in the international community. In October 2001, Musharraf authorised a sting operation led by FIA to arrest two physicists Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, because of their supposed connection with the Taliban after they secretly visited Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2000. The local Pakistani media widely circulated the reports that "Mahmood had a meeting with Osama bin Laden where Bin Laden had shown interest in building a radiological weapon;" it was later discovered that neither scientist had any in-depth knowledge of the technology. In December 2001, Musharraf authorised security hearings and the two scientists were taken into the custody by the JAG Branch (JAG); security hearings