Afghan Taliban would perish in one month without Pakistan support: Ashraf Ghani 

Afghan Taliban would perish in one month without Pakistan support: Ashraf Ghani 

AMRITSAR, INDIA:  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that the Taliban insurgency would not survive a month if it lost its sanctuary in neighbouring Pakistan, urging its neighbour to take on militant groups on its soil instead of giving Kabul financial aid.

Ghani’s remarks, made at an international conference in the northern Indian city of Amritsar not far from the border with Pakistan, suggested tensions were rising with Pakistan after Ghani attempted to improve relations with Islamabad when he took office in 2014.

Pakistan said while violence had increased in Afghanistan , blaming another country for it didn’t help.

Violence has spread around Afghanistan and the Taliban’s ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in the capital Kabul has piled pressure on Ghani’s Western-backed government to provide better security to a war weary people.

Last year, Afghanistan suffered the highest number of civilian casualties and military related deaths in the world, Ghani told the Heart of Asia conference aimed at getting regional players together to help stabilise his country.

“This is unacceptable… Some still provide sanctuary for terrorists. As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in Pakistan, they wouldn’t last a month,” he said.