The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday stated that the Afghan Taliban only participated in talks with Pakistan this past week to prolong a temporary ceasefire between the two nations and did not take any action against terrorist elements operating from their soil.<\/p>\n
Talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban followed weeks of shuttle diplomacy after deadly border clashes last month. On Friday, the talks broke down, with Defence Minister Khawaja Asif saying that the negotiations \u201centered an indefinite phase\u201d, but a temporary ceasefire between Kabul and Islamabad still stands.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy statement published today, the FO said: \u201cAnyone following the talks held under the mediation of brotherly countries of Turkiye and Qatar, could easily discern that the Taliban regime was only interested in prolonging the temporary ceasefire, but without taking concrete and verifiable actions against the TTP\/FaK (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan\/Fitna-al-Khawarij) and BLA\/FaH (Balochistan Liberation Army\/Fitna-al-Hindustan) elements present on Afghan soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned TTP. It later designated Balochistan-based groups as Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India\u2019s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of finding solutions to address Pakistan\u2019s core concern, [the] Afghan regime used the opportunity to malign Pakistan through hypothetical accusations and jingoistic rhetoric,\u201d the statement added. \u201cIt prolonged discussions and engaged in futile arguments to stonewall the efforts at reaching any concrete understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement added that at the same time, the Afghan Taliban regime tried to paint the issue of Pakistani terrorists hiding in Afghanistan as a humanitarian issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the aftermath of Pakistan\u2019s \u2018Operation Zarb-i-Azb\u2019 in 2015, terrorists belonging to the so-called TTP\/FaK fled to Afghanistan,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThey abetted [the] Afghan Taliban in their fight against the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) and [the] Afghan Government of the time. These terrorists and their families are now being harboured by [the] Taliban regime as a payback for their allegiance to Afghan Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the breakdown of the negotiations, the statement emphasised that Pakistan has never turned down dialogue with \u201cany government in Kabul\u201d, but affirmed that it would not hold dialogue with any terrorist group.<\/p>\n
The FO noted that since the Taliban\u2019s takeover in 2021, terrorist attacks in Pakistan surged, with the attacks \u201cemanating from Afghan soil\u201d. It added that despite the attacks, Islamabad maintained restraint and took no retaliatory action.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan\u2019s expectation was that with [the] passage of time, [the] Taliban regime would be able to control these attacks and take concrete actions against the TTP\/FaK elements present on Afghan soil,\u201d the statement read, adding that Pakistan tried to foster positive ties through providing humanitarian assistance and encouraging trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, despite all these positive gestures by Pakistan in terms of trade, humanitarian assistance, educational and medical visas facilitation and efforts at international forums to encourage the international community to engage with [the] Taliban regime in the interest of regional peace and stability, and for the socio-economic development of Afghanistan and its people, the response from the Taliban regime has only been hollow promises and inaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement reiterated Pakistan\u2019s demand that the Afghan Taliban hand over these terrorists to Islamabad\u2019s custody, adding that Kabul repeatedly refused to do so, citing a lack of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than being a matter of capability, it has become a matter of intent of [the] Taliban regime. Empty hopes and hollow promises rendered by Taliban regime so far have already outlived their efficacy,\u201d the FO stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday stated that the Afghan Taliban only participated in talks with Pakistan this past week to prolong a temporary ceasefire between the two nations and did not take any action against terrorist elements operating from their soil. Talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban followed weeks of shuttle diplomacy after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13308,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13306\/revisions\/13308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}