PNN – Pakistan’s defense minister said after the country’s military action inside Afghanistan that Islamabad does not want a military confrontation with its neighbor, but if Afghanistan behaves like an enemy, Pakistan will also block its land route for transit trade to that country.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Khawaja Mohammad Asif said in an interview with the Voice of America that the use of force will be our last option, so we do not want to have an armed conflict with Afghanistan.
Criticizing the softening of the Afghan Taliban towards the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, he said: We must send a clear message to Kabul that terrorism has spread too much along the common borders.
Khawaja Asif, recalling his February 2023 visit to Kabul as the Minister of Defense of Pakistan and at the head of a high-level military-intelligence delegation, stated that Islamabad explicitly asked the Afghan Taliban to stop being soft on the Pakistani Taliban.
In a warning to the Afghan Taliban, he said that if they treat Pakistan like an enemy, why should we offer Afghanistan a land corridor for trade.
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The Minister of Defense of Pakistan further emphasized by showing the line and address to the interim ruling body of Afghanistan that if the threat of terrorists and anti-Pakistani elements inside Afghanistan is not curbed, Pakistan will block its land route for Afghanistan’s trade with India.
He claimed that Kabul allows members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to work against Pakistan in order to prevent them from joining the ISIS terrorist group known as ISIS Khorasan, while this group is a major threat to internal security in Afghanistan.
By confirming its anti-terrorist operation inside Afghanistan, Pakistan considered the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan as a collective threat to the peace and security of the region and claimed: Some elements within the interim government of Afghanistan are using the Pakistani Taliban as a proxy force against Islamabad.
At the same time, the spokesman of the caretaker government of the Afghan Taliban strongly condemned Pakistan’s air operations in some areas of the country and warned that such incidents would have very bad consequences that would not be under Pakistan’s control.
Zabiullah Mujahid described Pakistan’s action as “reckless and leading to the violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty”.
At the same time, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan said in his weekly press conference in Islamabad today: United Nations intelligence assessments have confirmed the presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban elements in Afghanistan and that some members of the ruling Afghan Taliban have joined its ranks.