Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday alleged that Pakistan Army is only targeting local fighters in ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
At a news conference in Kabul, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Shakib Ahmad Mustaghni said the operation “is unacceptable to Afghanistan”. Pakistan Army is not going after Afghan militants – the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, he alleged.
For a month and a half, the full-scale operation has been underway in NWA, killing over 400 terrorists and Pakistan Army soldiers.
A few days back, Afghan Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Mohammad Akram Khpalwak had accused Pakistan of following “double standards” against terrorist groups. He had alleged that the Taliban fighting against the Afghan government are being supported by Pakistan. “They have been sent to safe areas of NWA,” the minister had claimed.
Mustaghni said that over the past 13 years, his ministry had been striving to resolve problems, such as terrorism and extremism, through diplomatic channels but such efforts “have yielded no results”.
“Per the information from our security officials, Pakistan has been involved in recent unrest and insurgent activities in various parts of the country,” he said, hoping Islamabad would stop “meddling in Kabul’s internal affairs”.