- Afghan president says his country wants peace, closure of terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan, says no peace with those who declared war against them
- Says suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories as active as before in Pakistan, laments receiving messages of war from Pakistan
- Five dead, 16 injured in suicide attack near Kabul Airport
- Pak FO says ‘can feel pain and anguish of Afghan brothers’, cites terrorism as common enemy, urges cooperative approach against menace
Agitated by recent wave of insurgent attacks in Kabul that has killed at least 56 people – the latest attack being on Kabul Airport on Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani grilled Pakistan for harbouring terrorists.
Afghan President Ghani told a news conference on Monday, “The last few days have shown that suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan. We hoped for peace but we are receiving messages of war from Pakistan.”
Since coming to power last year Ghani has courted Pakistan, expending substantial domestic political capital in the process, in hopes Islamabad will persuade the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.
But his comments on Monday are the strongest yet against Pakistan.
“In my telephone call with Pakistan prime minister (on Sunday), I told Pakistan to see terrorism in Afghanistan the same way it sees terrorism in Pakistan,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“I ask the Pakistani government if the mass killings of Shah Shaheed had happened in Islamabad and the perpetrators were in Afghanistan, what would you do?” he said, referring to a Kabul neighbourhood that suffered a fatal truck bombing on Friday.
KABUL UNDER FIRE:
The statement by the Afghan president comes after at least five people were killed and 16 wounded by a suicide car bomb at a busy roundabout near the entrance to Kabul’s international airport on Monday, police said.
“Our initial information shows four people have been martyred in the suicide attack. We are trying to identify the victims,” Kabul CID chief Fraidoon Obaidi said. He said 10 others were wounded while the Afghan health ministry put that figure at 15.
Obaidi confirmed that the explosion was caused by a suicide car bomb. “The explosion occurred at the first checkpoint of Kabul airport,” said deputy Kabul police chief Sayed Gul Agha Rouhani.
Smoke billowed from the scene of the explosion. A foreign news agency photographer saw pieces of charred flesh strewn around the checkpoint, where passengers undergo the first round of body checks before entering the airport. Ambulances with wailing sirens rushed to the area and were seen removing bodies.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which follows a wave of lethal bombings in the Afghan capital on Friday as the insurgency escalates after a bitter power transition within the Taliban.
Previously, blasts in Afghanistan on Friday struck near an army complex, a police academy and a United States Special Forces base, killing at least 51 people. They were the first major attacks since Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named as the new Taliban chief in an acrimonious power transition after the insurgents confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
Experts say insurgents are stepping up attacks as Mansour tries to distract attention from internal rifts over his leadership.
The wave of violence underscores Afghanistan’s volatile security situation amid a faltering peace process.
In may be mentioned that Pakistan had brokered peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban in July, the first round of which took place in Murree. However, after the announced death of Taliban supremo Mullah Omar, a second round of talks has been postponed on the Taliban’s insistence, said Islamabad.
PAKISTAN RESPONDS:
Following Ghani’s remarks, a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Office on Monday said, “We have taken note of the press conference by the president of Afghanistan held in Kabul and its contents relating to Pakistan.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan are brotherly and neighbouring countries and enjoy close and cooperative relations. Pakistan is committed to maintaining good neighbourly relations with Afghanistan and all other regional countries.”
The statement said Pakistan was itself the biggest victim of terrorism, with human losses exceeding 60,000.
“The people and the government of Pakistan can feel the pain and anguish of the brotherly people and the government of Afghanistan over the recent wave of terrorist attacks, which have resulted in the loss of many valuable lives and injured scores of people.”
“Terrorism is our common enemy and a cooperative approach is needed to combat this menace.”
The FO statement said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to Kabul in May said Pakistan considered enemies of Afghanistan as its own enemies, and has been extending complete cooperation to Afghanistan in combating terrorism.
Pakistan remains committed to supporting and facilitating an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, said the FO statement.