By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday it would not negotiate with militants who have killed security forces and civilians, dismissing media reports that a recent visit by a Pakistani envoy to Kabul was part of talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan, Asif Durrani, had conveyed Islamabad’s position during his three-day trip last week, when he met Afghan Taliban authorities and discussed issues of mutual concern, including a surge in militant attacks across Pakistan.
“Our position on the matter is very clear, we have said it before too, and our special representative to Afghanistan had also conveyed the same message that Pakistan cannot hold dialogue with elements that do not accept the constitution of Pakistan,” Baloch told Independent Urdu. “Or those whose hands have been stained with the blood of our civilians and security personnel.”
Pakistan has seen a rise in violence since the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a 20-year war. Attacks have particularly increased after a fragile truce between the TTP and the state broke down in November 2022.
Islamabad blames the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a separate group that has pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban but seeks to overthrow the Pakistani state.
The TTP has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, including a suicide bombing on a police station compound and a gun attack on two policemen in northwestern Pakistan last week, which killed six people and wounded 10 others.
Pakistan has called on the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP, alleging that the banned outfit operates from Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban have denied this, saying the TTP is based in Pakistan’s tribal areas and that Islamabad should deal with them.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said after meeting Durrani last week that Afghanistan would “never harm anyone” and that the Taliban administration would “allow none to use our soil against another country.”
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