ISLAMABAD: An Afghan official on Thursday dismissed a statement by a top Pakistani minister who said that a proscribed militant network was enjoying “all sorts of facilities in Afghanistan” while launching attacks in his country after a recent suicide bombing in Balochistan that targeted police providing security to polio workers.
Security officials stand guard at site of a suicide bomb attack targeting a police truck in Quetta, Pakistan, on November 30, 2022. (AFP)
The attack that claimed the lives of at least four people in the southwestern province of Pakistan was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) whose top leadership is based in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah told a news conference earlier today if the TTP’s claim was right, “it should be a matter of concern for the Taliban” administration in Kabul.
Reacting to the statement, a spokesman of the Afghan defense ministry rejected Pakistan’s claim.
“We once again assure all the countries of the region and the world that Afghanistan’s soil will never be used against other countries,” Enayatullah Khawarazmi was quoted as saying by AP.
Sanaullah told the news conference that Pakistan was in a position to deal with militant attacks.
“The TTP has accepted the responsibility of carrying out the attack in Quetta which is an alarming as well as a condemnable matter,” he said. “The TTP has access to all sorts of facilities in Afghanistan, so it should be a matter of concern for the government there.”
Meanwhile, the foreign office of Pakistan condemned a militant attack on a religious seminary in Samangan, Afghanistan, on Wednesday that killed at least 10 people.
“The Government and people of Pakistan extend their sympathies and condolences,” said the statement. “We stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and the bereaved families in this moment of grief.”
