Amid Islamabad’s calls for Afghanistan to rein in militants responsible for escalating militancy within Pakistan, the United States (US) on Tuesday also asked the Afghan Taliban to prevent their country from becoming a “safe haven” for terrorist attacks. The statement from US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller comes a day after Pakistan Army blamed Kabul for the uptick in militancy, saying that “safe havens and liberty of action”, along with the latest weapons available to militants from Afghan­istan enabled them to carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had on Saturday also strongly rebuked Afghanistan for “neglecting its duties as a neighbouring and fraternal country”, and for disregarding vital obligations made in the Doha peace agreement, specifically its commitment to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorist activities. At a press briefing the US State Department spokesperson restated the position that the Taliban administration bore the responsibility to control terror activities originating from their territory. “I don’t have any comment specifically on that, but I will say we have made very clear that we believe the Taliban has the responsibility to prevent the  Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven for launching terrorist attacks,” Millar said in response to a question. Pakistan has witnessed an increase in terrorist activities, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, following the termination of the ceasefire between the government and the banned TTP in November of the previous year.

 
Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP