Upping the ante: Kabul to seek action against Afghan Taliban

Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani will visit Pakistan today

ISLAMABAD: An Afghan delegation will visit Pakistan on Thursday (today) to demand the arrest and extradition of Afghan Taliban leaders from its soil, sources told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

“Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani will lead a high-level delegation to Pakistan on Thursday,” a source said. Afghan Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai is likely to be a part of the delegation.

The source said that the focus of the discussion would be a ‘non-paper’ presented by the Afghan government to Pakistan. “The Afghan government wants a response to the non-paper,” the source added, explaining the reason behind the delegation’s visit.

The non-paper demands that Pakistan take action against the Afghan Taliban allegedly on its soil, according to the source. “Pakistan should not allow injured Taliban to be treated in its hospitals,” the non-paper states. Further, the non-paper also demands Pakistan block sources of funding to the Afghan Taliban.

The visit comes after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan on Monday of sending ‘messages of war’ and harbouring bomb-making factories, in the wave of devastating blasts in Kabul that killed at least 56 people.

Pakistan has denied Afghan accusations of harbouring Taliban militants.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2015.