ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said that “no country has the right to attack another nation’s territory” after Islamabad said it could target Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan, Afghan media reported on Sunday.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, clashes have taken place between the security forces of the two states, while militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — a group separate from the Afghan Taliban but allied with them — have attacked Pakistani forces.
Militant attacks in Pakistan intensified since November last year after the TTP ended a cease-fire agreement it reached with the government and issued orders to its fighters to carry out attacks across the South Asian country.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said last week that Islamabad might launch an attack on TTP hideouts in Afghanistan, if the Taliban administration failed to dismantle the group and hand over the militants to Pakistan.
“When these problems arise, we first ask Afghanistan, our Islamic brother nation, to eliminate these hideouts and handover these individuals to us, but if that doesn’t happen, what you mentioned is possible,” Sanaullah told Pakistan’s Express News channel.
But Mujahid said no legislation in the world allowed any country to attack another’s territory.
“No country has the right to attack another nation’s territory. There is no legislation in the world that permits such a transgression,” Afghanistan’s Tolo News agency quoted Mujahid as saying.
“If anyone has any worries, they should share them with the Islamic Emirate since it has sufficient forces and can take action.”
Separately, the Afghan Ministry of Defense termed Sanaullah’s comments as “provocative and baseless.”
“It damages the good relations between the two neighboring and brotherly countries with such claims by Pakistani officials despite the existence of evidence indicating that the (TTP) centers are inside Pakistan,” the ministry said.
“We request that any concerns and problems should be resolved through understanding.”
