Taliban Must Ensure Afghanistan Soil Not Used Against Pakistan For Terror, Says Islamabad

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, said that the Taliban has a responsibility of ensuring that Afghanistan’s soil is not used for terrorism against Pakistan.

On Thursday, Baloch said, "It is their [Taliban’s] responsibility and they have accepted this responsibility on various occasions.”

She mentioned in the recent trilateral statement which was issued when the Chinese and the Taliban Foreign Ministers visited Islamabad in May, the Taliban also accepted their responsibility that Afghanistan’s soil will not be used against other countries.

Baloch stressed that Pakistan expects the Taliban to fulfil their promises.

Islamabad considers Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as a terrorist group and reports indicated that the Afghan Taliban has been relocating the TTP members to northern Afghanistan.

Pakistan has welcomed the Taliban’s decision of relocation of TTP members from the border areas of the two countries to northern Afghanistan.

Earlier, Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan, said that the Taliban have taken initial steps to address Islamabad's security concerns, but they are still not sure about the effectiveness of the group’s plans.

Durrani added that Pakistan and China expect the Taliban to cooperate in curbing the TTP and the Uyghur militias, just as it cooperated with the United States in the case of Al-Qaeda.