Pakistan on Thursday demanded that the Taliban rulers of neighboring Afghanistan prevent terrorist attacks from coming from its territory, a day after a suicide bombing in southwestern Pakistan sent a wave of shock and anger across the country.
The bombardment killed four people and appeared to target police protecting polio workers in the area. Islamabad blamed the attack on Pakistani Taliban fighters hiding across the border in Afghanistan.
At a news conference, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said the latest statement by the Pakistani Taliban underscored the threat of Afghanistan becoming a haven for militants, despite its Taliban rulers saying they would prevent such attacks from their territory, after they took control of Afghanistan. last year.
Khan said that if the claim by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP is correct that they were behind the previous day’s attack on the city of Quetta, “then it should be a matter of concern for the Taliban.”
Authorities said the attack killed a police officer and three civilians when the attacker blew himself up near a police truck. The attack also injured 23 other people, drawing national condemnation.
IN PAKISTAN, A CHAIN OF MILITANT AMBUSHING LEAVES 6 POLICE AND 2 TROOPS DEAD
The attack in the main city of Pakistan’s Balochistan province occurred as police were targeting polio workers as part of a nationwide vaccination campaign launched on Monday. The explosion was so powerful that it overturned the truck carrying the police officers into a ravine.
The latest violence came after the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire with Islamabad this week and vowed to immediately resume attacks across the country.
On Wednesday, the TTP said it launched the attack in Balochistan to avenge the murder of its former spokesman, Abdul Wali, known as Omar Khalid Khurasani. He died in August in a bombing raid in the Afghan province of Paktika.
Investigators collect evidence at the scene of a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan, on November 30, 2022. A suicide bomber blew himself up near a truck carrying policemen on their way to protect workers from polio in the outskirts of Quetta.
(AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
Enayatullah Khawarazmi, the defense ministry spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, rejected the accusation made by Pakistan. “Once again we assure all the countries of the region and of the world that the soil of Afghanistan will never be used against other countries,” he said.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who have ruled their country since US and NATO troops withdrew last year. The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has emboldened their Pakistani allies, whose top leaders and fighters are hiding out in the country next door.
BIDEN’S FAILED WITHDRAWAL IN AFGHANISTAN LEFT THE TALIBAN TURN THE NATION INTO A TERRORIST STATE
Before ending the ceasefire, TTP top brass held several rounds of peace talks with Pakistani officials in Kabul after the Afghan Taliban encouraged both sides to do so. After agreeing to a ceasefire in May, both sides blamed each other for violating the terms, until the TTP unilaterally ended it this week.
Since then, the Pakistani Taliban have intensified attacks against security forces in former tribal regions bordering Afghanistan and in other parts of the country.
This week, Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan traveled to Kabul, where she discussed a variety of issues with Afghan officials, including the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan.
Khan, the interior minister, said some 5,000 TTP fighters were hiding in Afghanistan along with their families.
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Meanwhile, TTP claimed in a brief statement on Thursday that it had targeted a security convoy near an army-run school in South Waziristan, a border region that served as a base for the Taliban for years until Pakistan’s army killed or arrested most of the insurgents in one attack. series of operations.
There was no confirmation from the military about Thursday’s attack in South Waziristan.
