- Dr Ashraf Ghani says ‘Pakistan dangerous distinction between good and bad terrorists is being maintained in practice’
- Pakistan says ‘it is unfortunate that Afghan leaders continue to make hostile statements against Pakistan and blame it for all failures in Afghanistan’
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday said the peace initiatives taken by Afghanistan with Pakistan are not successful as Pakistan differentiates between good and bad terrorists “in practice”.
“Our regional initiatives with neighbours are beginning to yield significant cooperative dividends. However, the exception is with Pakistan,” the Afghan president said during his speech on second day of Nato summit.
He added that despite clear commitments to the quadrilateral peace process, “Pakistan’s dangerous distinction between good and bad terrorists is being maintained in practice.”
“The key problem among our neighbouring states is an absence of agreed rules of the game, thus we seek regional and global support in creating those rules, which will bind us to collective security and harmony,” said Ghani.
The Afghan president maintained that the world leaders should understand that Afghanistan is facing a multi-dimensional conflict and is fighting all sorts of groups “ranging from Al-Qaeda and Daesh to terrorist groups with Central Asian, Chinese, and Russian origins, to Pakistani groups classified as terrorists by Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban groups”.
Citing the 2015 Makka declaration against terrorism as an example, Ghani claimed that Afghanistan’s dialogue within the Arab-Muslim community was also productive.
He was of the view that the recent terrorist attack near the Mosque of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in Medina has outraged the Muslim community and “should result in a consensus against the tiny minority that is attempting to hijack our civilization”.
Ghani thanked all the Nato countries for “fighting shoulder to shoulder” with Afghanistan’s own forces and claimed that the organisation has maintained its relevance and effectiveness in the paradigm shift presented by post-9/11 Afghanistan.
“The organization’s fulfillment of both its combat and support missions in Afghanistan is a corroboration of NATO’s continued global relevance, adaptability and effectiveness. Its transformative legacy, however, is building our 352,000 strong security and defense forces,” said Ghani.
He also thanked United States (US) President Obama for expanding the authorities of the Resolute Support Mission and his latest decision to maintain American troops throughout his term.
PAKISTAN ‘DISAPPOINTED’:
In Islamabad, the Pakistani Foreign Office expressed disappointment over the remarks of the Afghan president.
“It is unfortunate that Afghan leaders continue to make hostile statements against Pakistan and blame Pakistan for all failures in Afghanistan. However, since we have a genuine interest in seeing peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan would continue to make every effort to help bring peace in Afghanistan,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
“We also expect cooperation of the Afghan government in our fight against terrorism through effective border management and denying sanctuaries to anti Pakistan terrorists from TTP,” it said.
The Foreign Office also said that the need of the hour was close cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than constant blame game by the Afghan government based on inaccurate assumptions.