Afghanistan rebuts Pakistan’s accusations of militant support, says it seeks peace in neighborhood

ISLAMABAD: A senior Afghan interim administration official said on Wednesday his country was not responsible for providing security to Pakistan after Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq blamed Kabul for not clamping down on militants operating from its territory and even accused it of facilitating some of their attacks in his country.
The prime minister’s statement came amid an uptick in militant violence in the country for which he blamed a proscribed militant network, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose leaders are said to be based in the neighboring country.
Officials in Islamabad have consistently asked the Afghan authorities not to allow their soil to be used for attacks against Pakistan. Kakar’s statement on Wednesday revealed that Pakistan had even gone to the extent of asking Kabul to choose between Pakistan and the TTP in February and had since shared solid evidence with it to substantiate its claims.
“Regarding the recent claims of the interim prime minister of Pakistan, we must say that just as the Islamic Emirate wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, it also wants peace in Pakistan,” the Taliban administration’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced in a statement.
He added that the Taliban government “does not allow anyone to use the territory of Afghanistan against Pakistan.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not responsible for maintaining peace in Pakistan,” he continued. “They should solve their internal problems by themselves and not blame Afghanistan for their failures.”
Mujahid maintained the rising security deficit in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power did not imply his government’s involvement in increased violence in Pakistan.
He said that Afghanistan wanted good relations with Pakistan, adding that it did not want to interfere in the affairs of other states in the neighborhood.
The Pakistani prime minister had said that militant violence had increased in his country by 60 percent and suicide bombings had shot up by 500 percent since the formation of the interim Afghan administration.
He also said that 15 Afghan nationals were found involved in suicide bombings in Pakistan since then, and 64 Afghan citizens had died fighting Pakistan’s counterterrorism forces.