Pakistan warns it will act if Taliban use Afghan soil to attack
Pakistan’s Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, said in Islamabad on Sunday, the 3rd of Aqrab, that his government would take action to curb what he called “terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.” He stressed that if Afghan territory is used against Pakistan, Islamabad reserves the right to take any necessary action.
Chaudhry described accusations made by the Taliban administration against Pakistan as “baseless and unacceptable,” and urged the Taliban government to assume its responsibilities instead of making allegations, and to eliminate safe havens for terrorist groups in Afghanistan. According to him, Islamabad has shared evidence of armed individuals crossing from Afghan territory into Pakistan with Taliban officials.
The Pakistani minister said this evidence was also shared with Taliban representatives at the Istanbul and Doha meetings, but the Taliban government has so far failed to stop the continued infiltration. Chaudhry warned that if Pakistan is attacked, Islamabad will respond decisively.
He stressed that Pakistan’s government and security agencies are making serious efforts to prevent infiltration across the shared border with Afghanistan, and that these measures are ongoing. He also said a state of emergency has been declared in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to a lack of full cooperation with security agencies, and that the provincial administration is cooperating in counterterrorism operations.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban interim government in recent years of sheltering terrorist groups, an accusation that has so far not been met with any specific response from the Taliban. The security situation along the two countries’ shared border has remained one of the main sources of tension.
