Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday said that Afghanistan’s interim administration should move out of the “militant mindset”, amid strained ties between the two countries.
The relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent months, with the two sides accusing each other of supporting militancy.
Pakistan on Monday said its security forces carried out airstrikes on terrorist camps and hideouts in the border region with Afghanistan, killing 28 terrorists, including multiple suicide bombers.
The latest strikes mark a fresh escalation in tensions between the two countries, which have been strained for a while over Islamabad’s allegations that militant groups use Afghan territory to launch attacks against Pakistan, an allegation rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.
“The interim Afghan government needs to move out of its militant mindset into a mindset of a statesman or state,” Information Minister Tarar said while addressing a seminar in Islamabad on Afghanistan and the prospects of peace.
Tarar described it as the “Afghan predicament or Afghan conundrum” and stressed that it was a complex problem begging for a lasting and sustainable resolution.”Pakistan and Afghanistan have been, are, and will remain neighbours. We have international borders, linkages, connections. But our past has been turbulent,” he noted.
He said that Pakistan believes in peace and in peaceful coexistence but asked if peace can prevail in the current scenario and then proceeded to respond to the question he raised.
“Can peace be achieved? Yes. But is there a will to achieve peace? The answer unfortunately is no,” he said.
Tarar said Pakistan made several attempts to hold meaningful negotiations with Afghanistan, recalling visits by high-level delegations to Kabul and efforts made by friendly countries like Qatar, Turkiye and China.
He claimed that the efforts failed because Afghanistan failed to address the sole concern of Pakistan regarding the use of its soil for militancy, adding that Pakistan had also “responded to these activities through strikes against the terrorists”.
He said that terrorist safe havens were still functioning in Afghanistan and Islamabad had taken up the matter with Kabul. For peace, a policy of “live and let live” was needed, he added.
Tarar also said that Pakistan wants peace, but the desire must not be misconstrued as its weakness. He also highlighted the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
