KABUL: Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has said his government will work to ensure regional security and stability as he met Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani during the latter’s visit to Kabul.
Muttaqi held talks on Wednesday with Durrani, a veteran diplomat Islamabad appointed to his current post in May at a time of growing concerns over Afghanistan’s stability under Taliban rule. The two neighbors have increasingly strained relations due to growing violence on the border and a sharp rise in militant attacks inside Pakistan, many of them claimed by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which Islamabad says has been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
On Thursday, two TTP militants carried out a suicide attack on a compound that houses a police station and government houses in northwestern Pakistan, killing four and injuring 10 others. The attack came hours after the faction claimed responsibility for the shooting deaths of two policemen in an overnight gun attack in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Earlier in the week, a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was targeted by militants in Peshawar, leaving eight people injured.
“Afghans will never harm anyone; we will allow none to use our soil against another country; & our efforts will always be directed at working for regional security & stability,” Muttaqi told Durrani during the meeting, according to a Wednesday evening statement from Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of foreign affairs.
“We hope with your [Durrani] appointment, the political & economic relations between the two countries will develop further, & this requires joint work,” the statement read, adding that “ensured security in Afghanistan” offered an opportunity to strengthen the economy and increase trade between the two countries.
Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani (center left) meets Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi (center right) in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 19, 2023. (@QaharBalkhi/Twitter)
Cross-border fire and shootouts have occurred along the Afghan-Pakistan border for years, but Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November when the TTP unilaterally ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government.
Though the TTP openly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban after the fall of Kabul in 2021, they were not accepted by the latter and remained a separate militant group.
