Pakistan urges Taliban-led Afghanistan to move away from what Islamabad calls a “militant mindset” amid worsening tensions and cross-border militancy allegations
Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday urged Afghanistan’s interim Taliban administration to “move out of the militant mindset”, as relations between the two neighbours remain strained over allegations of cross-border militancy.
Pakistan said its security forces carried out airstrikes on terrorist camps and hideouts in the border region with Afghanistan, killing 28 terrorists, including multiple suicide bombers.
“The interim Afghan government needs to move out of its militant mindset into a mindset of a statesman or state,” news agency PTI quoted Tarar saying while addressing a seminar in Islamabad on Afghanistan and the prospects for peace. Tarar described the situation as the “Afghan predicament or Afghan conundrum” and said it required a lasting and sustainable resolution. But our past has been turbulent,” he said. Militant safe havens continue to operate in Afghanistan and Pakistan has raised the issue with Kabul, according to Tarar. He said peace would require a policy of “live and let live”.
Ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of supporting militancy. Islamabad has repeatedly alleged that militant groups use Afghan territory to carry out attacks in Pakistan, a charge rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.