National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf on Monday said Pakistan has faced cross-border terrorism for the last 20 years and now Islamabad is being asked to allow people coming from Afghanistan.
Addressing a presentation session on the Afghanistan conflict, Moeed Yusuf criticised the world powers for neglecting ground realities in Afghanistan.
He said the Taliban movement emerged from Kandahar and Pakistan started to host Afghan refugees from the 1980s.
“We are saying to the world engage with Afghanistan for the sake of the average Afghan in your selfish national interest… Not as a favour to Afghanistan or anybody,” Moeed said.
According to Moeed, it was time for the global community to learn from the “collective mistakes” for the sake of Afghanistan’s future and regional stability.
He stated that in the 1990s, after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, the US turned on Pakistan and imposed sanctions on the country. Pakistan went from being an ally to a former ally and then a sanctioned country, he said alluding to the Pressler Amendment that barred military and economic assistance to Pakistan.
Refugees used to come to Pakistan to avoid drone attacks from the US, he added.
The Pakistan NSA said, Afghan war badly affected Islamabad and after 2001, Pakistan faced terror attacks almost every day. After 2001, Pakistan emerged as the strongest ally of the US, he said.
He said that 97 percent of fencing along the border with Afghanistan has been completed and the work is going on with pace.
Yusuf asked how will we know if TTP or ISS terrorists enter Pakistan in disguise of Afghan refugees.
The NSA said that Afghanistan spiraled into total chaos as he referred to the presence of global terror outfits in the country due to the security vacuum. He said the average Afghans and Pakistanis were “betrayed” by the US and the western world.
According to Moeed, the policymakers in Washington agreed that the US made a “huge mistake by breaking ties with the Pakistani military” as by doing so, the US and the west lost contact with the situation on the ground.
Due to the West’s actions, the US and the west went from being the “leading patron to an untrusted, selfish foreign power”, Moeed said quoting people on the ground.
After the US invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan overnight became the most important ally of the US. The US president at the time said that the US will “never abandon Pakistan again”. Pakistan sacrificed thousands of lives in the war on terror led by the US, he said, adding that fingers were still being pointed at Pakistan despite all its help.
On Sunday, two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in a cross-border attack as the terrorists from Afghanistan across the international border had opened fire on a military post in Bajaur, said Inter-Services Public Relations.
According to ISPR, terrorists from inside Afghanistan across the international border opened fire on a military post in Bajaur. Two Pakistan Army soldiers, Sepoy Jamal, 28, from Mardan and Sepoy Ayaz, 21, from Chitral, have martyred during the exchange of fire.
with additional input from INP
Pakistan enforced cross border terrorism for last two decades and successfully victorious in installing Talibans in Afghanistan: Moeed Yusuf
Mia (goat-head)? what about Pakistan Talibans?