ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s caretaker foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani, has said the South Asian nation registered a strong protest with Afghanistan by handing over a demarche to the Afghan charge d’affaires, following an attack on two military posts in the country’s northwestern Chitral district that borders Afghanistan.
Twelve militants and four soldiers were killed during a gunbattle in Pakistan’s Lower Chitral area after militants attacked Pakistani posts on September 6, the Pakistani army’s media wing said in a statement issued after the incident.
The Pakistani Taliban, or the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed the attack in a statement. The group has stepped up attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern and southwestern regions bordering Afghanistan ever since a fragile truce between the state and the banned outfit broke down in November 2022.
“Pakistan registered a strong protest over the incident, summoned the Afghan Cd’A in Islamabad yesterday, and handed over a protest note to him,” Jilani told reporters at a media briefing on Saturday.
“It is the responsibility of the Afghan government that if attacks are occurring in Pakistan from their soil, then it should stop them.”
He said Pakistan expected the Afghan government to prevent the use of its territory for such attacks in future. “So, our expectation from the Afghan government is that it suppresses all such elements, whether it is the TTP or others,” Jilani added.
Pakistan’s caretaker interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, noted the Afghan Taliban had pledged in the Doha Agreement that they would not allow the use of their soil against any other country.
“We expect that you will honor the Doha Agreement and your land will not be used against any other country,” Bugti said. “This is our expectation and demand from them.”
Earlier this week, clashes between security forces of the two countries led to the closure of a main border crossing at Torkham, with trucks laden with goods lining the roads and travelers stranded on either side of the border for a fourth consecutive day on Saturday.
The busy Torkham border crossing, the main transit point for travelers and goods between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan, was closed by the Pakistani side on September 6. It has been closed several times in recent years, including a closure in February that saw thousands of trucks laden with goods stranded for days on either side.
Disputes linked to the 2,600-kilometer (1,615 miles) border have for decades been a bone of contention between the two neighbors.
“We believe that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan should be a border of peace and amity between the two countries,” Pakistani foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a press briefing in Islamabad this week.
“If there is a closure of the border from the Pakistan side, it is not because Pakistan wishes to create difficulties for traders and genuine visitors. It happens only when there is a grave security risk.”
She said Pakistan was in contact with the Afghan authorities and conveyed its concerns about the security threat that Pakistan faced, including the recent attacks.
