The Foreign Office (FO) has called off talks with the militant group, days after a senior Afghan Taliban leader called for a sit-down with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and banned Islamabad for peace talks.
Mohammad Nabi Omari, deputy interior minister of the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan, spoke at an iftar gathering in the southeastern city of Khost on Wednesday.
“We request the government of Pakistan and advise the fighting brothers (TTP) to unite and talk with them,” he said. The Deputy Minister of Interior did not draw attention to the presence of TTP in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban have asked Pakistan and the TTP to enter into direct talks to end the two-decade conflict that has killed thousands and displaced many in Afghanistan’s nomadic tribal areas.
But it was the choice of a senior figure of the Afghan Taliban not only to invite direct engagement between Islamabad and the TTP, but also to lead the militant congress and speak out on the issue.
Earlier efforts by the interim Afghan regime to “facilitate” talks between the two sides have ended, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of providing sanctuary and calling for action against militant groups.
The Afghan Taliban strongly rejects the use of TTP from Afghan soil and calls on Pakistan to take steps to resolve internal security issues.
Relations between the two countries have been strained since Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Khost and Paktika in retaliation for a bomb blast that killed seven soldiers in North Waziristan in March.
Addressing questions at the weekly press conference on Thursday, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Buluch denied talks with TTP.
Pakistan hopes Afghan authorities take immediate action against terrorist outfits and leaders who are responsible for crimes committed in Pakistan and terrorist incidents in Pakistan, Radio Pakistan reported.
He further expressed his commitment to fight all terrorist outfits targeting Pakistan and the symbol of Pakistan-China friendship.
In an earlier speech, Buluch said that Afghanistan was discussed at the 19th regular meeting of the secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security council held in Kazakhstan on April 3.
National Security Secretary Waqar Ahmad, who led Pakistan’s delegation to the SCO, warned of “terrorist implications for the entire region” and called for a comprehensive approach to address its causes, Buluch said.
“He called a peaceful and stable Afghanistan a strategic necessity for the prosperity of the region and called on the SCO member states to implement a unified policy and build a broad convergence to solve the multilateral challenges facing the SCO region and Afghanistan,” said Buluch.
