ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday offered condolences to his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi after a deadly suicide explosion outside the foreign ministry building in Kabul killed at least five people.
The phone conversation between the two ministers was held at a time when Pakistan has witnessed a spike in militant violence that has been blamed on a proscribed network, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose leadership is said to be based in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly requested the administration in Kabul not to allow armed factions to use Afghan territory to target other states.
“Condemning the terrorist act in the strongest possible terms, the Foreign Minister underscored that terrorism posed a common threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and required a collective response,” said the foreign office in Islamabad in an official statement after the phone call. “Reaffirming complete solidarity with the Afghan people in countering this menace, the Foreign Minister underlined Pakistan’s commitment to work with Afghanistan toward promoting regional peace and stability.”
The recent incidents of militant violence in Pakistan — including a hostage crisis at a counterterrorism center in the northwest and a suicide explosion in the federal capital — have happened since the TTP unilaterally called off a fragile cease-fire with the government in November.
There have also been some border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months, raising the level of friction between the two neighboring countries.
