Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stands with the flag of the Islamic Emirate
A spokesman of the interim Taliban government on Sunday urged Pakistani officials to exercise caution when discussing cross-border concerns, stressing that no outside force will be allowed to target militant hideouts within Afghanistan.
Last week, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told private broadcaster Express News that Islamabad could consider targeting hideouts of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) inside Afghanistan if Kabul fails to take any action to dismantle them. “When these problems arise, we first ask Afghanistan, our Islamic brother nation, to eliminate these hideouts and handover these individuals to us, but if that doesn’t happen, what you mentioned is possible,” he said to a question on whether there were plans to target the TTP’s hideouts within Afghanistan to ensure the group’s eradication from Pakistan. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had similarly hinted at direct action against terrorists within Afghanistan if Kabul fails to restrain them.
According to Afghan media, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has warned that the interim government would not allow anyone to attack Afghanistan. Noting that Kabul desires positive relations with Islamabad, he advised Pakistani officials to exercise caution when discussing such matters. “No country has the right to attack another nation’s territory,” he said. “There is no legislation in the world that permits such a transgression. If anyone has any worries, they should share them with the Islamic Emirate since it has sufficient forces and can take action,” he added.
In a separate statement, the Afghan Ministry of Defense likewise described the remarks of Sanaullah as “baseless” and “provocative,” adding that all disputes should be resolved through dialogue. Regretting that such remarks damaged “brotherly” relations, it claimed “evidence” suggested TTP centers were inside Pakistan.
There has been a marked surge in terrorism across Pakistan, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, in the past few months following the TTP’s unilateral revocation of a ceasefire it inked with Islamabad in 2021. The independent Islamabad-based think-tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, has suggested there was a 44 percent increase in the number of militant attacks in December 2022 compared to November. The report further claimed that there was a 28 percent increase in terror attacks throughout 2022, compared to 2021.