ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that it was concerned over safe havens of terrorist outfits on the Afghan side of the border.
In the weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said terrorist groups including the TTP, JuA, LI and Daesh held sanctuaries on the Afghan side from where they were undertaking cross-border raids on military posts on the Pakistani side.
He said that Pakistan has shared the locations of these safe havens with Afghan and US authorities on many occasions. “We have been consistently raising serious concerns about the rising footprint of Daesh in Afghanistan. Concentration of Daesh along the borders with Pakistan, Central Asian Republics, Iran and China further alarms us of its negative implications for Afghanistan, Pakistan and regional security,” he added.
The FO spokesperson said documents handed over to the Afghan officials contained evidence of Afghanistan-based TTP’s involvement in the recent Swat suicide attack.
He said Afghanistan had been asked to take action against militant sanctuaries that were a hotbed of anti-Pakistan activities.
Further, the spokesperson said that during National Security Adviser Nasser Janjua’s recent visit to Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani invited Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to Afghanistan, which the PM has accepted. “It is a welcoming development, and part of our continuous dialogue and engagement with Afghanistan and the international community for a lasting solution to the Afghan problem. It is true that peace in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to Pakistan’s peace and stability,” he said.
Dr Faisal reiterated that Pakistan had always supported an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process in Afghanistan. “Our policy on Afghanistan remains unchanged,” he said.
The spokesperson strongly rejected the Afghan NSA’s remarks in the US. “We strongly reject the allegations levelled by him and believe that such statements only serve to negatively reflect on our bilateral relationship.” Earlier on March 28, Pakistan had called for ‘collective pressure’ on the Afghan Taliban and other insurgent groups to bring them to the negotiating table. The statement came from Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif who led a Pakistan delegation to the Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan.
‘FO to seek details of companies sanctioned by US’
In the statement issued on Thursday, the FO further mentioned the federal government’s plans to seek information from the United States regarding the seven Pakistani companies added to the Entity List maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce last week over concerns that they were involved in nuclear trade.
“We shall be seeking information from the US as well as these companies to better understand the circumstances which led to the listing,” it said. “Pakistan believes that there should be no undue restrictions on the access to dual-use items and technologies for peaceful and legitimate purposes.” The office warned against ‘unnecessarily’ politicising of the issue.
Published in Daily Times, March 30th 2018.
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