ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday expressed ignorance about areported meeting of spy chiefs of Russia, Iran, China and Pakistan inIslamabad over the growing threat to the region from the militant IslamicState in Afghanistan.

Officials, however, privately confirmed to *Dawn* that the unprecedentedmeeting took place on Tuesday, which could besides dealing with IS providea basis for greater regional cooperation for peace in Afghanistan.

The meeting, which was supposed to be secret, was first reported by Russiannewswire *TASS* link>. The *Voice of America* (VoA)also carried a reportlink>onthe meeting.

*TASS* had quoted spokesman of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service SergeiIvanov as saying that heads of intelligence services of Russia, Iran, Chinaand Pakistan met in Islamabad to discuss measures against assembling of ISterrorists returning from Iraq and Syria in Afghanistan.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

*TASS* had said that the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service,Sergei Naryshkin, represented Russia at the meeting.

“The discussions focused on the dangers arising from a build-up of theIslamic State on the Afghan territory,” Ivanov said.

Russia has been extremely worried about IS threat emanating from thewar-ravaged Afghanistan. Its officials held a number of meetings withPakistani officials before the latest quadrilateral event.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had in February raised the issue ofIS expanding its footprint in Afghanistan during the visit of the thenPakistani foreign minister Khawaja Asif to Moscow.

“This trend of spread of ISIS is extremely worrying and the US and Natotried to obfuscate and neglect the facts and presented information that didnot correspond with the reality. ISIS presence is serious. …It boosts therisk of terrorists infiltrating into Central Asian countries from wherethey can enter the Russian Federation,” Lavrov had said and criticised USand Nato for failing to provide explanations about flight of unmarkedhelicopters to areas having IS presence.

Pakistan and Russia had later at the 7th meeting of their Joint WorkingGroup on Counter-Terrorism in March also reiterated this concern.

Pakistan, it is said, had also been discussing the matter with China andIran. In those meetings Pakistan had expressed alarm over relocation of ISterrorists from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan, particularly itsnorth-eastern parts.

The meeting of spymasters of the four countries, nevertheless, took many,particularly US, by surprise. The US, it is said, is particularly concernedover the emerging regional cooperation because it sees it as a potentialchallenge to its role in Afghanistan.

Russia and Iran have played a major role in the defeat of IS both in Syriaand Iraq.

FO spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal, speaking at the weekly media briefing,renewed the call for Taliban to renounce kinetic options and join the peaceand reconciliation process to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

He recalled that Pakistan and Afghanistan were discussing the Taliban issueunder the newly-instituted bilateral mechanism — the Afghanistan-PakistanAction Plan for Peace and Solidarity.