Pakistani officials have called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to refrain from harming the lives and livelihoods of the Pakistani people on the incitement of Pakistani Taliban.
The Foreign Ministry reacted to Pakistani officials in a statement: “The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is not in Afghanistan at all and is not active on our soil.”
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday, June 28, that based on national security policy, this movement (TTP), along with other terrorist groups, is considered as an enemy of peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and the region, and that the Afghan government is opposed to terrorist groups. A terrorist fights without any discrimination.
Pakistan’s interior minister has called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to refrain from harming the country on the incitement of Pakistani Taliban a news conference on Sunday. “We expect the Taliban not to allow the TTP and other individuals to carry out activities that would harm the lives and livelihoods of the Pakistani people,” Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad told a news conference.
In the statement, the Foreign Ministry called on Pakistan to act against terrorist groups jointly and without discrimination and not to allow these closely linked and organized groups to collude with each other to jeopardize Afghanistan’s security and stability.
The statement called for the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and the Doha Agreement to cut off Taliban ties with other regional and international terrorist groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Tehreek-e-Islami, Al-Qaida and ISIS.
The Taliban have not yet commented on the Pakistani interior minister’s remarks.
The Taliban Hosted by Islamabad
Meanwhile, Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president, wrote on his official Facebook page on Sunday, June 28: “Islamabad, as the host of the Taliban, can play a tangible role in peace and thus can transform to a trustworthy ally of the Afghan people. Continuing the current policy, that is, supporting the republic only in words but siding with the Taliban in practice, will lead to nothing but distrust on both sides.”
Mr. Saleh added that the policy of denial was not satisfactory and that the Taliban had no chance of “dominating” Afghanistan.
Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told TOLO news that attributing the escalation of violence to the Taliban was an “exaggeration”.
Mr. Qureshi said in the interview that other destructive elements, such as ISIS and some internal elements in Afghanistan that benefit from the war economy, were involved in the recent increase in violence.
Hamdullah Moheb, National Security Council adviser, reacted sharply to the remarks in a tweet: “The Taliban are launching violent operations against the Afghan people across the country. We know how and why they are able to do this consistently. Qureshi is either unaware or ignorant or an accomplice [of the Taliban]. He may as well deny that Osama bin Laden was found near a Pakistani military base.”
With the spread of the war in the country, verbal tensions between Kabul and Islamabad have also escalated.
Islamabad recently announced that it had severed its official relationship with Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser.
About two months ago, Mr. Moheb said in Nangarhar province that Pakistan was using a “power-hungry group” to expand its borders inside Afghanistan.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi reacted sharply to remarks by Hamdullah Moheb, the country’s national security adviser. He criticized Moheb’s remarks about Pakistan and asked him to correct them: “Since your speech in Nangarhar, my blood and the blood of all Pakistanis have been boiling with rage, and you should be ashamed and feel guilty of what you said.”
