Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, has written a letter to his Taliban counterpart in Afghanistan, stressing the necessity to handle the safety and financial challenges going through each international locations.
Kakar’s letter to Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund comes amid persistent tensions over Islamabad’s complaints that Kabul just isn’t doing sufficient to forestall cross-border “terrorist” assaults being deliberate on Afghan soil.
Whereas discussing the letter’s contents Sunday, a Pakistani official informed VOA it was written to thank Akhund for his current “felicitation message” to Kakar after he assumed workplace final month.
The official, requesting anonymity as he was not approved to talk to the media publicly, stated that Kakar conveyed “our safety issues” and underlined the necessity to collectively handle them to permit each international locations to increase financial and commerce cooperation.
“Enhanced regional commerce and connectivity stays important for the prosperity of our peoples. We should work assiduously to realize these shared targets,” the Pakistani prime minister wrote.
VOA reached out to the Pakistani data minister for touch upon the reported letter despatched to the Taliban prime minister however didn’t get a response instantly, nor have Taliban authorities in Kabul shared any response with the media.
Pakistan has skilled a resurgence in militant violence because the Taliban reclaimed energy two years in the past, when the USA and NATO allies withdrew all their troops after practically 20 years of international army involvement within the South Asian nation.
Officers in Islamabad say that the Taliban takeover inspired fugitive leaders and fighters of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to maneuver to the Afghan facet of the border and plot more and more lethal assaults with “larger operational freedom” towards Pakistani safety forces.
Tons of of Pakistanis, largely police and troopers, have died in virtually each day assaults by TTP and Baluch insurgents within the final yr. Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Baluchistan provinces bordering Afghanistan bear the brunt of the violence. The Baluch insurgents have been preventing for the independence of Baluchistan from Pakistan.
Taliban authorities deny that Afghan soil is getting used to threaten different international locations, together with Pakistan, and have urged Islamabad to keep away from blaming Kabul for its inside safety challenges.
Talking to VOA final week, Kakar didn’t rule out the opportunity of cross-border army motion or drone strikes towards suspected TTP bases in Afghanistan.
“Wherever we imagine that motion is required to guard our territory and other people, we’ll take it,” the prime minister stated, declining to debate operational particulars.
Pakistani officers say they’ve shared a listing of suspected Afghan Taliban fighters who joined TTP militants in launching current cross-border “terrorist” assaults, together with a raid on safety outposts within the northern Chitral district.
The TTP claimed accountability for mounting the assault that the Pakistani military stated had killed 4 troopers and 12 assailants.
A Pakistani safety official who requested anonymity informed VOA that round 1,000 closely armed militants, together with many Afghans, participated within the cross-border Chitral assault. He stated that if the Pakistani army hadn’t detected the “focus and motion” of the militants on the Afghan facet beforehand, they’d have confronted important losses throughout the raid.
The TTP, also called the Pakistani Taliban, is an offshoot and shut ally of the Afghan Taliban. The USA has listed the group as a worldwide terrorist group. The United Nations estimated in its newest report that at the very least 4,000 TTP members are lively in Afghanistan.
The landlocked, war-torn nation closely depends on Pakistani roads and seaports to conduct commerce with different international locations. Earlier this month, Islamabad closed a essential Afghan border crossing for passengers and industrial truck convoys for 9 days over safety and terrorism issues, stranding hundreds of autos and vacationers on either side.
The Torkham border gate was reopened for regular visitors on Friday after officers stated they’d obtained assurances from the Taliban that they’d not permit Afghan soil for use for terrorist assaults towards Pakistan.
