(Islamabad) Pakistan on Sunday called on the Taliban government in Kabul to take ‘tough action’ against militants who launch attacks on the country from inside Afghanistan, a day after the army allegedly fired rockets. Pakistani who killed six Afghans.
Posted at 10:03 a.m.
“Pakistan, once again, strongly condemns terrorists who operate with impunity from Afghan soil to carry out activities in Pakistan,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
“Pakistan calls on the sovereign government of Afghanistan to secure the Pakistan-Afghan border region and to take stern action against individuals involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan.”
On Thursday, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in the North Waziristan district by “terrorists operating from Afghanistan”, the ministry said.
Border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased since the Taliban took power last year, with Islamabad saying militant groups regularly carry out attacks from Afghan soil.
The Taliban deny harboring Pakistani militants, but are also infuriated by the fence Islamabad is erecting along their 2,700 kilometer border.
Fresh tensions erupted after five children and a woman were killed in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar on Saturday in rocket attacks that Afghan authorities blamed on the Pakistani army.
The Pakistani military has not confirmed whether it carried out the attack.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government warned Pakistan after the attack.
“It is cruel and it paves the way for enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said late Saturday.
“The Pakistani side should know that if a war starts, it will not be in the interests of any party.”
Areas along the border have long been a stronghold of militant groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates across the porous border with Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban and the TTP are separate groups in the two countries, but they share a common ideology and rely on the people who live on opposite sides of the border.
Thousands of people usually cross the border every day, including traders, Afghans seeking treatment in Pakistan and people visiting relatives.