ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday said Pakistan has always ensured that its land is not used against another country and, in return, expected that no country would use theirs against us.
In an apparent reference to Afghanistan, the minister, who was addressing a press conference in Islamabad, said Islamabad “will not allow” any state to render its land for terrorism activities inside Pakistan.
His statement comes following an increase in cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on security forces. Only Wednesday, militants based in Afghanistan fired across the border at a security checkpoint in North Waziristan, leaving two soldiers dead.
These isolated attacks have raised fears that the proscribed Afghanistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was regrouping in the border region of the war-torn country. The TTP is a separate insurgent group from the Afghan Taliban.
“It will not be allowed,” Rasheed told the reporters.
He further said that fencing along the restive border with Afghanistan will be completed within two months. The fencing was 88 percent finished whereas 46 percent of the border with Iran had also been fenced, he said.
He further said that India will inherently desire that peace is not achieved in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan had been making sincere efforts for durable peace in the neighbouring state.
“Pakistan wants to have good relations with all countries, including India,” he said. “However, [first] India will have to give the oppressed people of Kashmir their right to self-determination.”
Rasheed also condemned the statement of Indian Home Affairs Minister G. Kishan Reddy that sought to place blame on Pakistan for a purported drone attack on the Jammu Air Force station in occupied Kashmir.
“Investigation is underway and the security forces are on high alert, but one cannot deny the role of Pakistan,” NDTV quoted Reddy as saying.
India wanted to hide its failure in addressing the Covid-19 crisis through such claims, Rasheed said.
IN response to another question, he said that while hostile intelligence agencies — such as the Research and Analysis Wing of India — may perpetrate acts of terrorism such as the Lahore explosion to destroy hard-earned peace in the future as well, they must realise that our police was now as well-trained as the military.
In response to a question, he urged opposition parties to sit with the government to introduce electoral reforms for transparent elections in the future.
On the briefing of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security on the situation in Afghanistan as US troops quit the war-battered country, Rasheed said it will change the course of politics in Pakistan.
The politics will now centre on national security after the briefing, he asserted.
Earlier in the day, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the briefing will focus on Kashmir, Afghanistan and internal security challenges.
Outstanding.. your outlook on this is amazing
Ce monsieur est soit ignorant ce qui est grave pour un ministre de l’intérieur , soit extrêmement malhonnête ce qui est encore plus grave pour un être humain .
Et l’Afghanistan , et l’Inde ,d’ou partent les terroristes qui terrorisent les peuples de ces 2 pays? Qui les arme et soignent les terroristes blessés dans ces 2 pays . Ce mêmes Monsieur a dit dans interview il y quelques jours que les talibans qui mènent la guerre contre le peuple afghans , résident au Pakistan et que les terroristes blessés sont soignés dans les hôpitaux pakistanais .
Ce Monsieur est un sac plein de contradictions.