KABUL: Reacting to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s statement about targeting the TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan, the interim Taliban government Sunday said it would not allow anyone to attack the Islamic Emirate and asked Pakistan to share its reservations with Kabul.
The interior minister, in an interview with a local news channel had hinted that Islamabad might target the TTP in Afghanistan if Kabul did not take action to dismantle them.
“When these problems arise, we first ask Afghanistan, our brotherly Islamic nation, to eliminate their hideouts and hand those individuals over to us, but if that doesn’t happen then what you mentioned is possible,” Sanaullah said.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in terror incidents, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, during the past couple of months after the TTP announced to end ceasefire with Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto had also hinted at direct action against militants if the Afghan government failed to rein in TTP. Responding to Sanaullah, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said they would not allow anyone to attack Afghanistan, reports Geo News.
The spokesperson stated that Afghanistan wanted good relations with Pakistan and that its officials should use caution when speaking. “No country has the right to attack another nation’s territory. There is no legislation in the world that permits such a transgression. If anyone has any worries, they should share them with the Islamic Emirate since it has sufficient forces and can take action,” Mujahid maintained.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that the remarks of the Pakistani official were baseless and provocative and that any problem or dispute should be resolved through dialogue.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry of Afghanistan said efforts are underway to release hundreds of Afghan refugees, including women and children, from Pakistani prisons. The deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Zia Ahmad Takal, said that so far, talks have been held with the officials of the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs and some other officials of this country about solving the problems of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) said, “The problems between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be resolved through negotiations. Our demand from Iran and Pakistan is not to politicize the issues of immigrants and their rights should be in accordance with international laws and Islam,” said Mohammad Arsala Kharoti, the deputy minister of MoRR.
Pakistan’s National Human Rights Commission said in a report that at least 139 Afghan women and 165 children are being held in Karachi’s women’s prison along with criminals.