Pakistan could take action inside Afghanistan as last resort: Bilawal

We are ready to help Afghan Taliban if there is an issue of capacity, says foreign minister

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday indicated that Pakistan might, as a last resort, take action inside Afghanistan to deal with the terrorist threat emanating from the neighbouring country.

“We will act under international law to defend ourselves. If the Afghan authorities don’t act, then action inside can be one of the options but not the first option,” Bilawal said while responding to a question at the launching of ‘Digitised system under Foreign Minister’s Change Management Reforms.’

However, the foreign minister said Pakistan believed that the Afghan interim government would take action against terrorist groups threatening his country.

“We are ready to help them (Afghan Taliban) if there is an issue of capacity,” He said adding that “if there is an issue of intention then that’s a separate matter.”

His statement came against the backdrop of surge in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent months. The Bajaur terrorist attack was the latest in which scores of people were killed.

Pakistan has blamed the terrorist sanctuaries across the border for the surge in terrorist attacks. Islamabad has been repeatedly stating that the banned TTP and its affiliates have been operating from Afghanistan with impunity.

The interim Afghan government has denied this and insisted that it would not allow Afghan soil to be used against any country.

Also read: Prevent transnational terror from breeding on your soil, PM warns Afghanistan

But their claim was recently rebutted by a UN Security Council monitoring committee report, which endorsed Pakistan's stance.

The report noted that the return of the Afghan Taliban in August 2021 emboldened the TTP. It said the TTP was gaining momentum in Afghanistan and the group was seeking to re-establish its control in the erstwhile tribal areas.

Pakistan recently sent its special envoy to convey a strong message to the Afghan government. But sources said the visit of Ambassador Asif Durrani could not make any headway as the Afghan Taliban were adamant that Pakistan must talk to the TTP.

Meanwhile, according to APP, Bilawal said that writ of the state would be established at all costs and the government would not take steps to appease the militant or terrorists outfits.

He said that he had suggested to the prime minister to convene an Apex Committee meeting to address the issue of terrorist and criminal incidents in the country.

He said that there was an increase in the terrorist incidents after the fall of Kabul. The latest arms and ammunition left behind by the foreign forces had fallen into the hands of terrorist outfits and criminal organisations, and even with the dacoits which posed a challenge to the government, he added.

The foreign minister, to a question, further said that they expected the Afghan interim government to take actions against the terrorist organisations and honour their commitment made with the international community not to allow their soil for terrorist activities against any country under the Doha agreement.

He said Pakistan’s stance was clear and it had demanded the Afghan interim set up to curb terrorism, as cooperation against the menace of terrorism was in the interest of both countries. Afghanistan had no standing army, anti-terrorists force or border management force which caused the capacity issues to face terrorism, he opined.

“In the past, we had faced the threats and together will face them,” he added. Pakistan, he said, was ready to assist them as they had the capacity issues to deal with such threats.