Federal Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has categorically rejected the allegations made by Acting Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanikzai, calling them baseless, concocted and contrived attempts to shift blame.
The minister referred to a recent report by a United Nations monitoring team that identified more than two dozen terrorist groups, including the Tehreek-r-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). ) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), operating in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan remained the hub of ISKP recruitment and facilitation in 2024,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Khawaja Asif urged the Afghan interim authorities to respect their international commitments. “The interim Afghan authorities have every interest in respecting the assurances given to the international community by dismantling terrorist infrastructure and taking visible and verifiable measures to prevent Afghan soil from being used against other countries,” he said. he added.
The minister’s remarks follow a series of threatening statements from senior Afghan Taliban leaders. Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanikzai warned against sending fighters across the border if Pakistan did not “mend its ways”.
Pakistan has raised concerns that Afghanistan is home to the banned TTP. Following the recent terrorist attacks, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted that any aggression from across the border would cross Pakistan’s red line.
While asserting that Pakistan preferred dialogue to resolve issues, Prime Minister Shehbaz maintained that the Taliban must stop providing sanctuary to the TTP for meaningful progress.
The presence of militant groups in Afghanistan under Taliban rule has long been a source of tension in regional security discussions. Countries including Russia, Iran and China, which maintain diplomatic ties with the Taliban, have repeatedly urged the group to prevent Afghan soil from being used for cross-border attacks.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to deteriorate, with both countries accusing each other of harboring militants responsible for cross-border violence.
