ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday condemned a suicide bombing that killed at least 20 people in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar in neighboring Afghanistan a day earlier, calling such violent incidents a “shared concern” for both countries.
The suicide attack targeted people going to a bank in the southern Afghan city, many of them government employees, to collect their salaries.
The death toll was shared by hospital authorities with the media, though it was denied by Taliban officials who said only three people had died while dozens of others had suffered injuries.
The attack was later claimed by Daesh which has posed a significant security challenge to the Taliban administration in Kabul.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place in Kandahar on 21 March 2024 and resulted in the loss of valuable lives and injuries to many others,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“Terrorism is a shared concern that both countries need to address through collective efforts,” it added.
Relations between the Pakistani and Afghan administrations have hit a low following deadly suicide attacks in Pakistan which have been claimed by a banned militant network, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose leaders are believed to have found a sanctuary in Afghanistan.
Pakistan recently launched airstrikes against TTP hideouts along its border with Afghanistan after an attack in its northwestern region killed seven soldiers, including two army officers.
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said earlier this week his country did not seek armed conflict with Afghanistan, though he noted that cross-border militancy had reached an unacceptably high level.
