Islamabad will ask the secretive supreme leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban torein in militants in Pakistan after a suicide bombing killed scores ofpolice in a mosque, officials said Saturday.
Since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul, Pakistan has witnessed adramatic uptick in attacks in regions bordering Afghanistan, wheremilitants use rugged terrain to stage assaults and escape detection.
Detectives have blamed an affiliate of the Pakistani Taliban — the mostnotorious militant outfit in the area — for the Monday blast in Peshawarwhich killed 84 people inside a fortified police headquarters.
The Pakistani Taliban share common lineage and ideals with the AfghanTaliban, led by Hibatullah Akhundzada who issues edicts from his hideawayin the southern city of Kandahar.
Special assistant to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Faisal KarimKundi, said delegations would be sent to Tehran and Kabul to “ask them toensure that their soil is not used by terrorists against Pakistan”.
A senior Pakistani police official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province whereMonday’s blast took place told AFP the Kabul delegation would hold “talkswith the top brass”.
“When we say top brass, it means… Afghan Taliban chief HibatullahAkhundzada,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Afghan officials did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
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But on Wednesday Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi warned Pakistan should”not pass the blame to others”.
“They should see the problems in their own house,” he said. “Afghanistanshould not be blamed.”
During the 20-year US-led intervention in Afghanistan, Islamabad wasaccused of giving covert support to the Afghan Taliban even as the countryproclaimed a military alliance with the United States.
But since the ultra-conservatives seized Kabul in 2021, relations withPakistan have soured, in part over the resurgence of the Pakistani Taliban,also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The TTP — formed in 2007 by Pakistani militants who splintered off fromthe Afghan Taliban — once held sway over swathes of northwest Pakistan butwere routed by an army offensive after 2014.
But over the first year of Taliban rule, Pakistan witnessed a 50 percentuptick in militant attacks, concentrated in the border regions withAfghanistan and Iran, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies.APP/AFP
