Islamabad, Jan 2 (IANS) Reacting to Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s statement about targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistn (TTP) hideouts inside Afghanistan, the Taliban government in Kabul said that it would not allow anyone to attack the Islamic Emirate.
The Minister, in an interview with a Pakistani news channel, had said Islamabad may target the TTP in Afghanistan if Kabul does not take action to dismantle them, Geo News reported.
“When these problems arise, we first ask Afghanistan, our Islamic brother nation, to eliminate these hideouts and handover these individuals to us, but if that doesn’t happen, what you mentioned is possible,” Sanaullah had said.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in terrorism 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 fails to rein in TTP.
Responding to Sanaullah, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said, they would not allow anyone to attack Afghanistan, Geo News
reported
The spokesperson stated that Afghanistan wants to have 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 added
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence said that the remarks of the Pakistani official are baseless and provocative and that any problem or dispute should be resolved through dialogue, Geo News reported.
According to the statistics released by an Islamabad-based independent think tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), the number of militant attacks increased by 44 per cent in December 2022 compared to the previous month.
In December, the militants carried out 49 attacks in which 56 people were killed including 32 security forces personnel and 17 civilians.
In these attacks, 81 people also got injured including 31 security forces personnel and 50 civilians.
The report added that December saw the highest number of militant attacks in a single month in 2022.
–IANS
san/ksk/