US Urges Taliban to Prevent Afghanistan from Becoming ‘Safe Haven’ for Terrorists
The United States on Tuesday asked the Afghan Taliban to prevent their country from becoming a “safe haven” for terrorist attacks.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, made the statement a day after the Pakistan Army blamed Kabul for the rise in militancy, saying that “safe havens and liberty of action” provided by Kabul, along with the most recent weapons available to militants from Afghanistan, allowed them to conduct attacks inside Pakistan, Dawn reported.
Islamabad has expressed concern over extremists using Afghanistan territory for cross-border terrorism on several occasions. The military has said that it expects the Taliban authorities to take action against militants and follow the Doha agreement.
The Pakistani military reported that nine officers were killed after militants attacked an army installation in Balochistan province, and three others died in the exchange of fire last week.
The Pakistani army said it had “serious concerns on the safe havens and liberty of action available to TTP in Afghanistan.”
According to Pakistan’s military report, the main cause of the most recent wave of unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the Afghan Taliban’s inability to control the TTP, as Dawn cited.
The sources further noted that the militants who carried out the recent strikes in Balochistan were donning M-16 guns and typical US military uniforms.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Defense minister, Khawaja Asif, warned the Taliban authorities in Kabul, saying that “Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces of Pakistan.”
However, the Taliban rejected all the allegations earlier, saying Pakistan should not blame its shortcoming on Afghanistan.
“The Doha peace agreement has been signed with America, and Afghanistan’s soil will not be used against Pakistan, and Pakistan is a brotherly and Muslim country,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, senior Taliban spokesperson.
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