Federal Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has categorically rejected the allegations made by Acting Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanikzai, calling them baseless, fabricated and contrived attempts to deflect blame.
The minister referred to a recent report by the UN monitoring team that identified more than two dozen terrorist groups, including Tehreek-r-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP ), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which operates in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan remained the ISKP recruitment and facilitation hub in 2024,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Khawaja Asif urged the Afghan interim authorities to fulfill their international commitments. “The interim Afghan authorities would do well to fulfill the assurances given to the international community by dismantling terrorist infrastructure and taking visible and verifiable measures to prevent Afghan soil from being used against other countries,” he added.
The minister’s comments come after a series of threatening statements by senior Afghan Taliban leaders. Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Stanikzai warned of sending fighters across the border if Pakistan did not “amend its ways.”
Pakistan has been expressing concern over Afghanistan hosting the banned TTP. Following the recent terror attacks, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated that any aggression from across the border would cross Pakistan’s red line.
While saying that Pakistan preferred dialogue to resolve the issues, Prime Minister Shehbaz maintained that the Taliban must stop providing shelter to the TTP to make significant progress.
The presence of militant groups in Afghanistan under Taliban rule has long been a source of tension in discussions about regional security. Countries such as Russia, Iran and China, which have maintained diplomatic relations with the Taliban, have repeatedly urged the group to prevent Afghan soil from being used for cross-border attacks.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to deteriorate, with both nations accusing each other of harboring militants responsible for cross-border violence.
