Pakistan Raises Afghanistan-Based Security Threats with UN Chief
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has raised Islamabad’s concerns over what he called the “growing threat of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil” in a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
Sharif said he had shared Pakistan’s security concerns with the UN chief during the meeting. He also stressed Pakistan’s support for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve conflicts and said Islamabad backed the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to establish an independent state.
The Pakistani prime minister also raised his country’s concerns over the rise in Islamophobia with the UN Secretary-General. However, the main focus of the meeting, amid escalating tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban administration, was the security situation and Islamabad’s allegations about the activity of armed groups in Afghanistan.
Tensions between the two sides have risen in recent days. Following a deadly attack on a mosque near a police headquarters in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which killed at least 31 people and injured 80, Islamabad once again accused the Taliban administration of harbouring armed groups opposed to Pakistan; an allegation the Taliban administration has denied.
Pakistan then carried out several airstrikes inside Afghanistan. In the latest case, Islamabad said early on Thursday that it had targeted 10 sites linked to the storage and launch of drones in three Afghan provinces.
The Taliban administration said at least four civilians were killed in the strikes. Earlier, Pakistan had also carried out airstrikes in Kunar and Paktika, and the United Nations confirmed the deaths of three people.
In response, the Taliban administration said it had attacked Pakistani border positions, and officials said they would give Pakistan a “proper response” to the strikes. The Taliban administration’s foreign ministry also summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul and handed him a protest note regarding the airstrikes.
Afghanistan and Pakistan share a long and tense border, and much of the security tension between the two sides has centred on the Durand Line, a frontier that in recent years has repeatedly seen clashes, retaliatory attacks and accusations between the two sides.
